WNE OF BRITTANY 




HELEN J. SANBORN 




Class 

Book 

CoRyriglitU ,. 






COPYRIGHT DEPOSffi 



ANNE OF BRITTANY 

The Story of a Duchess and Twice-Crowned Queen 




House of the Duchess Anne. — St. Malo. 



AJSTNE OF BRITTANY 

The Story of a Duchess and 
Twice -Crowned Queen 

BY 

HELEN J: SANBORN 

Author of "A Winter in Central America" 

With Introduction by Katharine Lee Bates, Professor of 
English Literature, Wellesley College 

Illustrated from Photographic Reproductions 




BOSTON 
L0THR0P, LEE & SHEPARD CO. 



Published, August, 1917 



tf 






Copyright, 1917 
By Lothbop, Lee & Shepard Co. 



ANNE OF BRITTANY 



SEP 28 1917 



Horwoofc press 

BERWICK & SMITH CO. 

NORWOOD, MASS. 
U. S. A. 



©CU473720 

-Wo . I , 



PEEFACE 

My search for a knowledge of the life and per- 
sonality of Anne of Brittany required more 
than one trip to France and much delving in li- 
brary and book-shop, until finally, piece by 
piece, came the answer to my question, "Who 
was the Duchess Anne?" 

In this search authorities proved meager and 
were difficult to obtain. To secure from Bren- 
tano's, in Paris, the best life of Anne, "Vie de 
la Reine Anne de Bretagne," by Leroux de 
Lincy, published at Paris in 1860, it was neces- 
sary to wait a year and a half. Two works in 
English, "A Twice-Crowned Queen* ' by Count- 
ess de la Warr, and "Anne of Brittany" by 
Miss Costello, neither of which was published in 
America, are both out of print. French his- 
tories and the lives of Charles VIII and Louis 
XII make slight mention of her. A history of 
Brittany of size and importance, such as Lo- 
bineau's, in French, could not be found. Yet 
she was ruler over a rich and powerful duchy 
in Europe and was "twice queen of France." 



vi PREFACE 

Is it a fulfillment of her own prophecy that since 
she was a Breton and a foreign queen, she would 
not long be remembered by the French people ? 
The reason then for this volume is plain: to 
fill a gap in our book shelves on a neglected sub- 
ject, and to share with others the pleasure and 
interest of knowing intimately the life story of 
one of the world's great women. 

H. J. S. 
Boston, January, 1917. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction > > & ;. xv 

CHAPTER I 

The Duchy op Brittany 1 

From England to Brittany — Origin of the Bretons 
— The Duchy of Brittany — House of Dreux — Relation 
of Brittany to France — Last Days of Feudalism — The 
Brittany of To-day, its Language and Customs — 
Great Men of Brittany — Breton Country — Market 
Day — Hotels in Brittany — Typical Peasant's Cottage 
— 'Religious Festivals — Shrines — Mont St. Michel to 
St. Malo — La Maison de la Duchese Anne — "Quiqu'en 
Grogne" Tower. 

CHAPTER II 

The Father op the Duchess Anne, the Last Duke 
op Brittany 17 

Francis II, Last Duke of Brittany — Coronation at 
Rennes — Duke Francis and the French Kings — Brit- 
tany Independent of France — Nantes, Capital of Brit- 
tany — Chateau of Nantes — Magnificence of Francis — 
Francis and Louis XI — League of the "Public Good" — 
Duke Francis and his Subjects — Landais — Louis of Or- 
leans at the Court of Francis — Siege of Nantes — 
Treaty of Sable" — Death of Francis — Tomb of Francis 
— Summary of Reign of Francis. 

CHAPTER III 

Birth and Youth op Anne op Brittany .... 35 

Nantes, its Chateau — Birth of Anne of Brittany — 
Anne's Governess, Frangoise de Dinan — Anne at the 
Age of Nine — Anne's Early Sorrows — Anne and Louis 
of Orleans — Uprising against Landais — Invasion of 
Nantes by the French — Siege of Gwengamp — A Ball 
at the Court of Anne's Father. 



viii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER IV page 

Anne, the Duchess of Brittany, 1488-1491 ... 50 
Anne proclaimed Duchess of Brittany — Angers of 
Charles VIII — French Invasion of Brittany — Anne's 
Capability as Ruler — Her Suitors — Her Bravery in 
Danger — Maximilian, Emperor of Austria — Anne's 
Betrothal to Him — Her Marriage by Proxy — Terms of 
the Marriage-Contract — Anne's Defiance of France — 
Lack of Aid from Maximilian — Rieux — The Duchess 
at Rennes — Siege of Rennes — Charles VIII as Con- 
queror of Anne — His Terms — Their Betrothal. 

CHAPTER V 

Marriage of Anne to Charles VIII 68 

The Chateau at Langeais — Anne's Arrival with her 
Trousseau — The Marriage-Contract — The Wedding of 
Charles VIII and Anne of Brittany — The Bridal Dress 
— Joy in France — Indignation in Austria — Dunois — 
Coronation of Anne at St. Denis — Anne and Charles in 
Paris — H6tel des Tournelles — Love and Respect of the 
French People for Anne. 

CHAPTER VI 

Anne, Queen of Charles VIII .:..... 79 

The Royal Pair at Amboise — Improvements in the 
Chateau — First Years Together — Traveling — Birth of 
the Dauphin ; his Baptism — -Claims of Charles in Italy 
— Affairs in Brittany — Italian Campaign — Entry of 
Charles and Anne into Lyons — Departure of Charles 
for Italy — Anne's Gifts to Churches — Success of 
Charles at First — Reverses — Death of the Dauphin — 
Other Children of the King and Queen — Tomb of the 
Children — Reforms of Charles in France — Change in 
his Daily Life — Happiness of Anne — Death of Charles 
— Sorrow of Anne. 

CHAPTER VII 

Anne a Second Time Duchess of Brittany, 149&- 
1499 103 

Anne again Duchess of Brittany — Her Period of 
Mourning — Her Acts as Duchess — Anne in Paris — Ar- 
rival in Brittany — Her Meetings with the New King 
— His Divorce from Jeanne of France — His Betrothal 



CONTENTS ix 

PAGE 

to Anne — Anne's Journey to Chartres — Inventories of 
the Duchess — Convocation of the States General at 
Rennes — Reception at Nantes — Death of Frangoise de 
Dinan — Anne's Breton Guards — Lebaud's "History of 
Brittany" — The Cordeliere; its Emblem — Anne's 
Work as Duchess. 

CHAPTER VIII 

Anne of Brittany and Louis XII 116 

Louis and Anne — Ancestors of Louis — Childhood 
and Education of Louis — Jeanne of France; Her Di- 
vorce from Louis — Marriage-Contract of Anne and 
Louis — Festivities. 

CHAPTER IX 

A Visit to Blois 130 

From Tours to Blois — Chateau at Blois ; the Guard- 
Room — Tapestries — Anne's Furnishings — Her Cham- 
ber — Three Portraits of Anne — The Gallery To-day — 
The Chapel. 

CHAPTER X 

Louis and Anne 138 

Italian Campaign of Louis XII — Anne of Brittany 
and Louise of Savoy — Birth of Claude — Joy of the *^ 
King and Queen — Anne's Lack of Faith in Physicians 
— Madame Buchage — Anne's Pilgrimage to St. Claude 
— Tournament at Lyons — Charles and Louis in Italy 
— Anne's Help to Louis in Time of War — Her Breton 
Soldiers and Sailors — The Cordeliere; Loss of the Ves- 
sel — Bravery of the Bretons. 

CHAPTER XI 

The Incident of de Gie 148 

Illness of Louis — Misunderstanding of Anne's Treat- 
ment of de Gie — Unprejudiced Account by Lavisse — 
Anne's Position at Court — The Two Rival Factions — 
Gie, the Governor of Francis — Cardinal d'Amboise — 
Power of Gie at Court — Death of Louis Imminent — 
Conduct of Gie — Anne's Preparation for her Return to 
Brittany — Interference of Gie — Louise of Savoy and 
Gie — Accusations against Gie ; his Trials and Sentence 
— Recovery of Louis — Result of the Trial. 



x CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XII page 

Anne's Second Coronation 156 

Preparations for Anne's Second Coronation — The 
Coronation — Festivities of the Parisians — "The Five 
Anne's" — The Queen at Notre Dame — Banquet at the 
Palace of Justice — In Touraine — Loches — Anne, Louis, 
and Claude at Blois — Illness of Louis — Anne's 
Prayers — The King's Will — His Recovery — Anne's Pil- 
grimage to Brittany — Notre Dame de Folgoet — Dinan 
— Anne at Morlaix — The Ermine — St. Jean-du-Doigt 
—.The Relic— St. Jean-du-Doigt To-day. 

CHAPTER XIII 

Claude's Betrothal 169 

Desire of Anne to keep Brittany Independent — Mar- 
riage Contract of Claude and Charles, Grandson of 
Maximilian — Festivities for the Austrian Ambassadors 
— Archduke Philip at the French Court — Presentation 
of Little Claude — Opposition in France to the Austrian 
Alliance — Determination of Louis to betroth Claude to 
Francis d'Angouleme — Indignation of Anne of Brit- 
tany — Louis, the Father of the People — Betrothal of 
Claude — Reasons for Anne's Opposition to the Mar- 
riage — Anne's Journey to Brittany — Anxiety of d'Am- 
boise; his Letter — Anne's Return to France. 



CHAPTER XIV 

The Court op Anne . 180 

How Anne formed her Court — A School for Ladies 
— Anne's Position at Court — How Louis honored Her 
— Anne's Household — Her Ladies and Maids of 
Honor — Salaries of the Members of her Household — 
Anne's Order of Chivalry, the Cor&elidre — Anne's Su- 
pervision of the Maidens at Court ; their Recreations — 
Anne's Interest in the Marriage of her Maidens — 
Brantome and His "Book of the Ladies" — Children of 
Anne's Household — Anne's Democracy — Her Care for 
her Servants — Anne's Reputation as Matchmaker — 
Ladislau II — Anne de Foix — Germaine de Foix — Char- 
lotte d'Aragon — Rolandine — The Daughters of Ad- 
miral Graville — Happy Hours of Anne with her Maid- 



CONTENTS xi 

CHAPTER XV page 

Writers and Artists at the Court op Anne . . . 200 

Literature in Anne's Time — Commines — Jean le 
Maire of Belgium — Chroniclers — St. Gelais — Jean 
d'Auton — Jean Marot — Gringoire — Anne's Secretaries 
— Artists at Court — Bourdichon ; his Work — Jehan 
Poyet — Jean of Paris — Italian Artists — Artists at 
Tours — Michel Colomb — Artisans — Robertet — Anne's 
New Year's Gift to Charles — Tapestries — Anne's Rare 
Taste in Art. 

CHAPTER XVI 

LtE Livre d'Heures of Anne de Bretagne .... 212 
Anne's Book of Hours ; its Significance — Anne's Gar- 
dens — Prayer-Books of French Kings — Anne's Book It- 
iself — Four Types of Illustrations — Flower Designs 
taken from Anne's Gardens — Her "Low Garden at 
Blois" — Flowers, Fruits, and Insects — Pictures of 
Anne in the Book — The Book a Revelation of Anne's 
Daily Life. 

CHAPTER XVII 

Last Years op the Duchess Anne 221 

Departure of Louis for Italy — Jean Marot — "Le 
Voyage a Genes" — Anne with Louis in Lyons — Birth 
of a Son — League of Cambrai — Louis again off to 
Italy — Anxiety of the Queen — The King's Return — 
, Marriage of Marguerite and the Duke d'Alencon — 
\/ Birth of Renee; her Life Story — Birth of Another 
Son without Life — The Holy League — Anne's Joy 
over the Reconciliation of Louis with the Pope. 

CHAPTER XVIII 

Death and Funeral of the Queen 234 

Anne's Last Sickness — Her Death — The Room of 
State — The Funeral Procession, from Blois to Paris — 
Notre Dame de Paris — Funeral Services — St. Denis — 
Funeral Banquet — Peter Choque — An Epitaph — 
Anne's Heart — Inscriptions on the Golden Box — Tomb 
of Anne. 

Finis 251 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



House of the Duchess Anne. — St. Malo. (Page 

15) Frontispiece ^ 

FACING 
PAGE , 

"Quiqu'en Grogne" Tower. — Chateau of St. Malo 16^ 

Tomb Erected by Anne to Her Father and Mother. 
Cathedral of Nantes . 30 

Window of the Room where Anne was Born. 

Chateau of Nantes 34 ^ 

Horseshoe Tower. — Chateau of Nantes . . . . 36 ^ 

Duchess Anne's Birthplace. Chateau of Nantes . 44 " 

Anne, Duchess of Brittany, at Fifteen Years of 
Age 50 



Chateau of Langeais 



Room in which Anne was Married to Charles 

VHI. Chateau of Langeais 72 i/ 

Medal of Charles VIII and Anne 74 •/ 

Chateau of Amboise. Residence of Charles VIII 

and Anne 80 * 

Charles VIII 88 v 

Tomb of the Children of Charles VIII and Anne. 

Cathedral of Tours 96 ^ 

Fac-simile of One of Anne's Letters to Louis XII 108 

Nantes. — Statue of the Duchess Anne .... 112 * 

xiii 



xiv ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 
PAGE 

Leap from a Folio Antiphonary Executed in 1499 
for the Wedding of Louis XII and Anne of 
Brittany 126 v 

Chateau of Blois. — Wing Louis XII. Residence of 

Louis XII and Anne 130 v 

Duchess Anne's Fireplace, Chateau of Blois . . 134 

Louis XII 138 

Oratory of the Duchess Anne. — Chateau of Loches 160 

Dinan. — Chateau of the Duchess Anne .... 168 

Claude, Daughter of Louis XII and Anne . . . 176 

"Justice," from the Tomb of Anne's Father and 
Mother; Probably the Portrait of Anne Her- 
self 208 

Anne and Her Three Patron Saints: Saint Ur- 
sula, Saint Margaret, and Saint Anne . . . 218 

Anne in Later Years 230 

Gold Box which once contained Anne's Heart . . 246 
Tomb of Louis XII and Anne.— St. Denis . . .250 



INTRODUCTION 

Usually the author finds the subject and 
coaxes or compels it, often much against its 
will, into words, but in rare and happy in- 
stances, as here, the subject finds the author 
and will not let him go. It was not Helen J. 
Sanborn who proposed to write of Anne of Brit- 
tany. It was the imperious shade of the Queen- 
Duchess that, reaching across five centuries, 
possessed herself of an American biographer. 
Miss Sanborn, touring with friends along the 
straight, white roads of France, was delayed 
in Brittany by what seemed, at the time, to be 
an automobile breakdown. While the machine 
was undergoing prolonged repairs, the Duchess 
Anne, a mysterious figure then, beckoned to the 
party and lured them from tower to staircase, 
from fortress to cathedral, haunting her ancient 
duchy and her famed chateaux upon the Loire 
so effectively that the spell held even overseas. 
Again and again Miss Sanborn, yielding to a 
subtle fascination, returned to visit the places 

XV 



xvi INTRODUCTION 

where this enchanting ghost had lived her short 
and splendid life, until she came to know Anne 
of Brittany at every stage of her eventful his- 
tory, — the bahy lifted high in the arms of Duke 
Francis on the roof of his towered castle at 
Nantes for the people thronging the courtyard 
below to see ; the dark-eyed child, not yet in her 
teens, proclaimed on her father's death Duchess 
of Brittany; the rosy-cheeked girl-queen of 
young Charles VIII of France, holding magnifi- 
cent nuptials in the somber chateau of Langeais ; 
the widow stretched on the floor in passionate 
grief amid the adornments of that fatal chateau 
of Amboise which Charles had loved to make 
beautiful for her; the yet youthful queen of 
Louis XII, graciously reigning over her court 
of ladies, artists, and scholars in the proud 
chateau of Blois, devoutly kneeling before her 
wondrously illuminated Book of Hours, the 
central, radiant presence of hall, boudoir, and 
garden, until, still untouched by the shadow of 
age, she went forth in death on the last and 
most majestic of her royal progresses. 

It is singular that this vivid personality 
should have taken so strong a hold on the re- 
served New England woman, the close of whose 



INTRODUCTION xvii 

life was enriched by this hidden romance of 
friendship. Often, especially in her later 
years of illness, Miss Sanborn would escape 
from pain and weakness to live, with her Duch- 
ess Anne, in a dream of gorgeous ceremonies 
and quaint Breton pilgrimages. Ever staunch 
in allegiance, she sided with the Duchess in her 
few quarrels and lamented her many griefs. 
Points of peculiar sympathy were a reverent 
devotion to the memory of parents and a per- 
sistent distrust of medicine. 

The purpose of writing a biography of Anne 
of Brittany was long in forming and, under 
the pressure of many other occupations incident 
to a public-spirited woman of wealth, the work 
proceeded slowly. Meanwhile a stealthy dis- 
ease was constantly, and more and more, sap- 
ping her strength. Gallantly she labored on, 
but the approach of death found the manuscript 
still incomplete. It was the Duchess Anne who, 
with a characteristic disdain of medical opinion, 
kept the brave sufferer living for months after 
the end had been predicted. Miss Sanborn was 
determined to finish her book and, in effect, 
carried out her will, even arranging for illus- 
trations and binding. In a sense, the two lives 



xviii INTRODUCTION 

closed together, so that the introduction to this 
volume sorrowfully becomes a memorial of its 
author. 

The secret of a life may best be sought in its 
loves and its consecrations. The intimate re- 
lation between Miss Sanborn and her father, 
the late James S. Sanborn, lies at the root of all 
her service. Born in Maine, in the village of 
Wales, in 1835, Mr. Sanborn made his first in- 
dependent business venture in the neighboring 
town of Lewiston, where he set up a modest 
trade in coffee and spices. This prospered so 
well that in 1872 he transferred his business to 
Boston, establishing his home in Somerville, 
then a quiet suburb. His family consisted of 
his wife, the daughter of an Auburn sea-captain, 
and four children, of whom Helen, born October 
6, 1857, in Greene, a few miles from her father 's 
birthplace, was the eldest. The firm of Chase 
and Sanborn was formed in 1878, and their teas 
and coffees came so widely into favor that Mr. 
Sanborn was enabled to indulge his tastes for 
nature, animals and travel. His heart was still 
loyal to Maine and he developed an attractive 
summer home in Poland, where he interested 
himself in breeding horses of a fine French 



INTRODUCTION xix 

strain. Combining business with pleasure, he 
visited the lands of spice and coffee, the West 
Indies, Mexico, and Central America, later ex- 
tending his travels to Europe. 

Glad to give his children the educational op- 
portunities his own youth had missed, Mr. San- 
born took pride in Helen's progress from the 
Somerville High School through the State Nor- 
mal School in Salem, where she graduated as 
valedictorian of the class of 1879. After she 
had proved her mettle by a year of successful 
teaching, he entered her at Wellesley College, 
then in its first decade, from which she duly re- 
ceived, in 1884, the degree of Bachelor of Arts. 
Her love for this beautiful Alma Mater became 
a second dominating influence in her life. 

A third deep devotion, to the International 
Institute for Girls in Spain, sprang from that 
delighted interest in Spanish speech, ways and 
customs, whose original impulse, again, goes 
back to her father. Her first book, published in 
1886, "A Winter in Central America and Mex- 
ico, ' ' opens as follows : 

" 'Why don't you take your daughter Helen 
with you on your southern trip?' 

"This question was asked by a friend of the 



xx INTRODUCTION 

family as we sat chatting together in the library, 
one evening, about the journey which my father 
was soon to take through Central America and 
Mexico. 

"My father replied: 'I should be very glad 
to take anybody who could speak Spanish. ' 

" 'Oh, will you take me if I will learn Span- 
ish?' I exclaimed eagerly. 'I will learn it be- 
fore you go, if you will only promise to take 
me!' 

"Much to my surprise the challenge was ac- 
cepted and, although fresh from college and 
longing for a glimpse of foreign lands, I felt a 
little dismayed, when I had time for delibera- 
tion, at the task I had set myself— to learn a 
language of which I knew not a word, and make 
all preparations for a long journey in the short 
space of less than three months which must in- 
tervene before our departure. However, of this 
I breathed not a syllable to any one, but went to 
work at once." 

Both this reticence and this diligence are em- 
inently characteristic of the writer, and charac- 
teristic, too, the timid pluck and sober humor 
with which she met the severe hardships and by 
no means inconsiderable perils of that journey. 



INTRODUCTION xxi 

The five-days jaunt on muleback across the 
mountains of Guatemala, with only such miser- 
able rest and refreshment for the night as Indian 
villages could offer, taxed the fortitude of both 
travelers. Decent Bostonians, they learned to 
put aside all prejudices as to fleas and dirt, to 
eat and drink what they could get and be grate- 
ful for shelter in a mud hut or even a native 
jail. At Panama, a deadly place thirty years 
ago, where they found a lively little revolution 
adding its terrors to the fever-laden air, courage 
almost failed, but neither confessed it to the 
other until they were safe at home again, having 
carried out their entire itinerary. 

This memorable trip, an experience which, 
the adventurers said, they would not have 
missed for "the wealth of Ormus and of Ind" 
nor would repeat for twice that treasure, awoke 
in Miss Sanborn the joy of travel. She yearned 
for Europe and, in 1888, toured, with a Welles- 
ley party, Great Britain and the chief countries 
of the Continent. In 1893 father and daughter 
made the Mediterranean trip together and ex- 
plored Spain. Here Miss Sanborn rejoiced 
anew in those Hispanic courtesies and graces 
whose charm she had first felt in Spanish 



xxii INTRODUCTION 

America and here, at San Sebastian, she visited 
Mrs. Gulick's school, of which, in its Madrid 
branch, she was to become one of the firmest 
supporters. In 1904 and 1905 her travels took 
her through the countries of northern Europe 
and up into Iceland. From time to time she 
printed in periodicals accounts of her more 
novel journeys, but §he was already too busy 
with manifold home, social and educational ac- 
tivities to undertake a second book. She had 
come to be recognized in her own community 
as a leader in all work making for human uplift. 
For three years she served on the Somerville 
School Board; for seven years she was presi- 
dent of a literary club ; she was faithful in labors 
for the Winter Hill Congregational Church, 
whose missionary society she organized and di- 
rected; and the habit of the helping hand was 
binding to her many grateful friends. 

The new century opened with a swift succes- 
sion of family bereavements. The tenderly 
cherished mother, long an invalid, died in 1901. 
Two years later Miss Sanborn lost her father, 
that successful merchant whose steadfast integ- 
rity was perhaps his daughter's deepest pride, 
and in 1905, with an almost rhythmic regularity 



INTRODUCTION xxiii 

of blows upon the heart, came the sudden death 
of the brother next to her in age and peculiarly 
congenial in character. From the depression 
caused by these griefs and the loneliness of the 
great house left desolate she never fully rallied. 
The younger brother and sister had married 
and, although their homes were in neighboring 
towns and they and their children, as well as her 
own friends, were often with her, she dwelt 
henceforth in the shadow. Life had ceased to 
be hope; it had become patience. With cour- 
age, with dignity, but with lowered vitality, she 
turned to the tasks that remained, — tasks in- 
volving, with the inheritance of large means, 
wider and heavier responsibilities. 

True to community interests and local philan- 
thropies, Miss Sanborn from this time forth 
spent her main endeavor in the cause of wo- 
man's education. Touchingly grateful for what 
she had received, she strove to pass the blessing 
on, — to America, through Wellesley College ; to 
Spain, through the International Institute at 
Madrid. She had long been counted among the 
staunchest of the Old Guard of Wellesley grad- 
uates ; she had served as chairman of the alum- 
nae committee that, in 1891, closed a dragging 



xxiv INTRODUCTION 

debt on one of the College buildings, and had 
rendered many another hard and unobtrusive 
service, but now her gifts were on a scale which 
few Wellesley women could equal. In 1906 she 
was elected to the Board of Trustees, a trust 
that she discharged to the last in a spirit of 
sacred fidelity. 

In the year of Mrs. Gulick's death, 1903, a 
League of girls' schools and women's colleges 
in America was organized to aid the Interna- 
tional Institute Corporation, a non-sectarian 
body chartered ten years earlier under the laws 
of Massachusetts, in carrying on her educa- 
tional work in Spain. Miss Sanborn, a director 
of the Corporation, agreed to act as treasurer 
of the League, an office in whose duties she 
spent herself with unswerving solicitude even 
to the last remnants of her strength. She took 
a quiet but deep enjoyment in fostering this in- 
cipient college for Spanish women, which she 
visited in 1909 and through which, five years 
later, she presented to Spain a precious manu- 
script of the fifteenth century that had strayed 
from the Columbus library at Seville into the 
hands of an Amsterdam dealer, — a gift that 
brought her letters of cordial gratitude from 



INTRODUCTION xxv 

King Alfonso, through his secretary, and from 
the librarian of the Colombina. 

It was apparently in 1908, on a second trip 
to Brittany, that Miss Sanborn first fell captive 
to the witcheries of the Duchess Anne. Before 
she had succeeded in collecting the necessary 
material, her strength was far spent, and al- 
though her longing prevailed and urged the nar- 
rative through to its end, there was no time for 
revision. Her own Book of Hours closed on 
the evening of Thursday, April 26, 1917. With 
a sad courage and a humble trust she had looked 
long into the face of Death, but these coming 
pages bear witness to the consolations of that 
strange, secret companionship with her Queen- 
Duchess which sent flushes of sunset beauty 
over the gray years. 

Kathaeinb Lee Bates. 



ANNE OF BRITTANY 

CHAPTEE I 
THE DUCHY OF BRITTANY 

THE PAST 

A night across the English Channel from 
Southampton, a day by rail from Paris or an 
automobile trip from Normandy to St. Malo, 
brings one to the land of Brittany and to a great 
change in manners, scenes, and customs. 

By the first route, the busy wharves of an 

English seaport give place to a little medieval 

walled town rising like an island out of the sea ; 

by the second, the fashions of Paris yield to the 

somber livery of the Breton peasant, and the 

gay life of the Parisian cafe to the religious 

procession of the Pardon; by the third, smiling 

landscapes with humble cottages embowered in 

bright flowers turn to cobblestone pavements 

and grim stone houses ; luxuriant vegetation is 

replaced by denuded trees, and an air of pictur- 

1 



2 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

esque decay by one of substantial thrift. In 
whatever way the traveler goes, or whatever 
port he makes, "he journeys back a thousand 
years in time ,, to the land of the Duchess Anne. 

Where did the Breton come from? The an- 
swer generally accepted is that Great Britain, 
in the fifth century, at war with her neighbors, 
called in the Anglo-Saxons to help her. The 
Anglo-Saxons remained and sent for others un- 
til the whole land was invaded. After a while, 
to escape these barbarians, some of the Britons 
embarked across the channel to Armorica (land 
by the sea), in northwest France, and with this 
event the history of Brittany begins. It is cer- 
tain that this migration lasted a long time, and 
a continuous stream of people from Great Brit- 
ain took possession much in the same manner 
as our early settlers came to America, but of 
this period we possess only vague notions from 
the lives of Breton saints, written by French 
monks. The mysterious dolmens, upright hewn 
bowlders, indicate a worship of stones ; and the 
menhirs — huge, rude, horizontal burial monu- 
ments which make Carnac a Celtic Westminster 
Abbey — mark the graves of ancient heroes. 

Caesar's "Commentaries" tell of the wonder- 



THE DUCHY OF BRITTANY 3 

ful high tides on the north coast, and of the peo- 
ple who, when first attacked, yielded, only to 
revolt again and again. 

Passing over the Eoman invasion, the real 
history of Brittany begins in the tenth century. 

Brittany was first a group of tribal states 
under warring princes, who yielded to Charle- 
magne, the great conqueror. After the reign of 
three or four kings, always at odds with France, 
the title of "duke" was used in Brittany, and 
these dukes came either from the Plantagenet 
line of England or the Franco-Breton line of 
Dreux, from which our duchess is descended. 
With Pierre de Dreux, who was duke from 
1213 to 1237, the duchy ceased to be ruled by 
princes of English blood. 

The story of Brittany, as a duchy, began when 
valiant Alain, "of the twisted beard,' ' arose to 
deliver it from the rapacity of strangers, though 
it was not until Peter the Hermit preached the 
first crusade that Brittany came into contact 
with the great world, and not until the end of 
the twelfth century that she entered into the his- 
tory of France, keeping her own language and 
customs, which she has not relinquished even 
to the present time. 



4 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

Unlike France, Brittany did not have the 
Salic law, that is to say, it did not forbid the 
rule of a woman ; the eldest of a family, what- 
ever the sex, inherited the power. This law 
caused intestine wars and made Brittany a prey 
to its neighbors, especially to France and Eng- 
land, who always had sons to marry to the 
daughters of Breton dukes. At one time Nor- 
mandy, herself coveted by France, ruled 
Brittany; Spain and Austria were ever eager 
for a share. 

The house of Dreux, to which the Duchess 
Anne belonged, originated as follows: 

In 1213, when Arthur, Duke of Brittany, was 
assassinated and there was no male heir, the 
French king, Philip Augustus, declared Ar- 
thur's sister the lawful heir and married her 
to Pierre de Dreux, grandson of Louis le Gros, 
king of France. Pierre, in return for the fa- 
vor, vowed loyalty to King Louis. With Pierre 
disappeared the last duke of Brittany who was 
wholly a Breton. Though Breton blood be- 
comes mixed, Breton patriotism remains pure. 
In spite of foreign origin or alliance, the dukes 
who followed made valiant defense against the 



THE DUCHY OF BRITTANY 5 

surrounding countries that desired to possess 
the rich duchy. 

True Breton that she was, Anne's blood was 
mingled with some of the noblest of both Eng- 
land and France. This was brought out in a 
poem on her genealogy, read at her funeral. It 
traces her mythical descent to St. Helena, who 
found the true cross, and to " great kings too 
numerous to mention/ ' the first of whom, Co- 
nan Meriadec, crossed over to Armorica from 
either Scotland or Wales. The last pure 
Breton was Count Bobert of Dreux, who gave 
Anne her family name. In direct descent from 
him came a grandson of St. Louis of France, the 
sons of Henry III of England, William the Con- 
queror of Normandy, and the six Johns, dukes 
of Brittany, who through their marriages 
brought into relation with Anne, England, 
France, and Belgium. The last of the six 
Johns was the direct ancestor of Francis II, 
the father of our Duchess Anne. 

The history of Brittany is a chapter of strug- 
gles, usurpations, foreign alliances, and con- 
stant political changes, whose effects went to 
make up the sturdy Breton character which 



6 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

Anne inherited. Eelations between England 
and Brittany were always close. England re- 
ceived and sheltered Breton dukes, helped her 
in war, and married her daughters. Once, in 
its early history, the duchy of Brittany was ac- 
tually ruled by England. France, on the other 
hand, preyed upon Brittany from earliest times, 
and finally won, not by conquest, but by mar- 
riage, — the marriage of a king with a duchess, 
Charles VIII with the Duchess Anne. Nothing 
could have been more distasteful to Brittany 
than this alliance. Even as far back in its his- 
tory as the reign of Brittany's second king, the 
opposition to a union with France is strikingly 
illustrated. Erispoe, king of Brittany, was 
killed by one of his sons to prevent the marriage 
of a sister with the French king, Charles the 
Bald. Doubtless Anne inherited from her an- 
cestors a strain of opposition to wedding a 
French ruler. 

As Anne's father was the last duke of Brit- 
tany and ruler over one of the most powerful 
duchies of Europe, the days of Anne go back to 
the last days of feudalism. As every reader 
of history knows, the kings of the early ages 
were great warriors, and, attended by their 



THE DUCHY OF BRITTANY 7 

nobles, led their own armies to battle. These 
nobles were paid in land granted by the king, 
on condition that they should do him homage 
and fight his wars. They in turn gave farms to 
men of lower rank, who likewise served them, 
and the latter were served by serfs, who were 
sold with the land on which they worked. By 
this system armies were quickly raised, each 
noble marching at the head of his own vassals 
and having absolute power over their lives and 
property. 

To-day Brittany is sometimes called the "Ire- 
land of France," a contradiction of terms 
which shows that Brittany is not France at all. 
A better nomen would be the "Wales of 
France,' ' for inhabitants of Brittany bear close 
resemblance in many ways to the Welsh of 
Great Britain, from whom they are descended. 
The Breton language to which they still cling 
resembles Welsh as much as the Dutch lan- 
guage resembles German, and St. Samson, be- 
loved in Wales, is the patron saint of Dol in 
Brittany. 

The Bretons say, "We are not French, we 
are the people of our own country," and they 
have their own folk-lore. Their great epic, 



8 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

"Barzoz Breiz," by Villemarque, they think 
ranks with the ' ' Iliad ' ' and the ' ' ^Eneid. ' ' As 
they do not care to be up-to-date, they are sel- 
dom seen reading a newspaper or magazine, and 
the women do not need the fashion periodicals, 
for their costume never changes. 

Benan says of his countrymen: "Ever be- 
hind the age, they are faithful to their con- 
querors when their conquerors are no longer 
faithful to themselves. The last to defend its 
religious independence against Borne, Brittany 
has been the stanchest stronghold of Catholi- 
cism. It was the last in France to defend its 
political independence against the king, and it 
has given to the world the last Boyalists." 

Brittany claims many great men : Du Guay- 
Trouin, naval hero ; Jacques Oartier, discoverer 
of the St. Lawrence river; Chateaubriand, 
writer and statesman; Pierre Loti, novelist; 
Benan, philologist ; Du Guesclin, the great war- 
rior; Bernard of Clairvaux, ecclesiastic; Ber- 
nard of Morlaix, author of "Jerusalem the 
Golden''; Abelard, scholar and teacher; and 
Herve Biel, hero of Browning's poem. With 
such a glorious past, Brittany may well look 
hopefully into the future. 



THE DUCHY OF BRITTANY 9 

THE PRESENT 

It was over the old roads built by the Bomans 
that we traveled day after day, roads crossing 
the country from side to side, — hard, smooth, 
and straight. The grotesque-looking trees ex- 
cited our curiosity, and later we learned that 
their fantastic shape came from the fact that 
the farmers, forbidden to cut them, hacked the 
branches for firewood. The roadsides were 
bordered, too, in place of flowers, with peculiar 
hedges we have never seen elsewhere; first a 
mound of earth is raised along the side of 
the road, and on this mound shrubs are planted. 
Most of the villages we passed through were 
small and had surface drainage. Their houses 
for the most part are built of rough, uncut 
stones loosely plastered together with mud, 
with a few openings for windows, or sometimes 
the doorway is the only outlet for air and light. 
The small houses are usually clustered around 
an imposing old gray church, relic of feudal 
days, when each baron tried to surpass his ri- 
val in an ecclesiastical structure. 

The great cities are much like those in other 
parts of France, with fine public buildings, 



1Q ANNE OF BRITTANY 

parks, and squares, yet always with their own 
distinctive Breton air. 

In their market-day, which we once chanced 
upon, we got close to the life of the people. 
Starting at the square of the town, and extend- 
ing for a mile and a half, tables with pins, 
needles, dolls, laces, shoes, underwear, cloth, 
candy, books, and pictures were followed by but- 
ter, cheese, eggs, live poultry, pigs, and cattle. 
When, at noon, the market broke up, pande- 
monium reigned; live stock, bundles of wares, 
the Breton cart and French automobile, the 
Breton cap and the Parisian hat, men, women, 
and children were mingled in noisy confusion. 
To the imaginative beholder the old nursery 
rhyme of the "Five Little Pigs' ' suddenly 
stepped from the dead past to the living pres- 
ent. Here was one pig going home in the arms 
of an old woman, another pulled by a rope in 
the hands of a man, and still others dragged off 
in carts, squealing lustily, with a squeal that 
would last "all the way home." Never was a 
moving-picture show more varied or fascinat- 
ing. Markets and market-days there are every- 
where in the world, but none more interesting 
than the typical Breton one. 



THE DUCHY OF BRITTANY 11 

As we rode through the countryside of Brit- 
tany, children more frequently than anywhere 
else in France, ran out of the houses to wave to 
us with happy smiles and greetings, for the auto- 
mobile pleased and attracted them. There were 
few other signs of life except in the fields where 
it was harvest time. Groups of reapers bind- 
ing sheaves were just like pictures by Corot or 
Millet. The threshing of the wheat made the 
busiest scenes, — men, women, and children tak- 
ing part in the work. Sometimes only a hand- 
flail was used and then again large machines. 

At this season of the year it was hard to find 
accommodations, for the native hotels, with 
such pretentious names as Grand Cerf et 
Cheval were crowded, and often the six-course 
dinner with yellow cider, the native beverage 
which the Bretons greatly enjoyed, offered only 
bread and cheese that was palatable to the 
American. If the Duchess Anne were travel- 
ing in these days in some parts of Brittany, she 
would be wise to take her own food with her, 
as she did in the fifteenth century. 

An incident in our hotel experience illus- 
trates the ups and downs of modern travel in 
that country. One night when the tempest 



12 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

raged and the winds howled over the submerged 
forests of the channel, we were obliged to pay 
thirty-five dollars for the only remaining suite 
at the Hotel Eoyal in Dinard, that fashionable 
resort of the French and English nobility ; while 
the next night, at Morlaix, we paid but twenty 
cents apiece for our rooms and walked through 
the bar to reach them. But the opportunity to 
see another house of the Duchess Anne offset 
any inconveniences. This time it was one of 
several old gabled structures of the fifteenth 
century with sculptured hall and staircase. 

Once we had an excellent lunch in a garden 
with rustic booths. Again, caught in a thun- 
derstorm, we tarried in a peasant's cottage, and 
thankful enough we were not to have to spend 
the night there. The woman of the house, as 
soon as she saw us approaching, walked away 
to her neighbors across the road while a foolish 
old man allowed us to enter. In the passage- 
way of the stone hut herbs were drying on the 
wall, and a cupboard held the family supplies. 
The one large room, with a big fireplace and 
stone floor, had the Breton bed, like steamer 
bunks, against the wall and so few chairs that 
our host had to stand that we might sit. On 



THE DUCHY OF BRITTANY 13 

Sunday it was pleasant to see the families driv- 
ing to church in their high carts. The men 
wore smocks and baggy trousers, the women full 
black skirts and black waists with caps typical 
of the town in which they lived. All, even chil- 
dren, wore wooden shoes. On week days and 
Sundays alike we were apt to meet processions 
on their way to or from church, where the Par- 
don, 1 the national religious festival of Brittany, 
was being observed. By the wayside we fre- 
quently saw calvaries and shrines, for the 
Bretons are devout and have more saints than 
any other people. They are full of supersti- 
tious beliefs and stories of warnings of the 
dead, and think that on Christmas eve the gift 
of speech is given to oxen and asses, in remem- 
brance of the manger of Bethlehem; while a 
sprig of green is a symbol of immortality. So 
much of Brittany is surrounded by the sea that 
Pliny called it "the ghost-like peninsula of the 
ocean.' ' Naturally, then, Bretons are fisher- 
men and sailors, and Anne in her time could 
furnish a powerful navy. Even now three- 
fourths of the men in the navy of France are 
Bretons, and the tragedy of the sea, whether 

i See "The Land of Pardons," by Anatole Le Braz. 



14 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

of the Iceland fisherman or of the battleship in 
the Mediterranean, penetrates to many a ham- 
let. 

Our most glorious ride was along the emerald 
coast from Mont St. Michel to St. Malo. Mont 
St. Michel, the formidable fortress which the 
English could never take, stands guard on the 
border of Normandy, a mountain of rock ris- 
ing out of the quicksands of the sea. From 
time immemorial it has been surmounted by a 
church, first pagan, then Christian, but always 
so beautiful that it well deserves its name, "The 
Marvel. " On the western end the corsair town 
of St. Malo furnishes many reminders of our 
duchess and of distinguished Bretons. The 
savage dogs that guarded it centuries ago ap- 
pear now only on its coat of arms, but the old 
wall still remains. 

Ascending the stone stairway, we walked 
along the wall entirely around the town, now 
seeing the city itself, then the lovely bay of St. 
Malo, and farther off, at the mouth of the river 
Eance, the ancient town of St. Servan, guarded 
by the Tour Solidor built by Anne's great- 
grandfather, Duke John IV. 

A visit of the Duchess Anne to St. Malo is 



THE DUCHY OF BRITTANY 15 

permanently recorded in stone. Picture post- 
cards of a tower designated "La Maison de la 
Duchesse Anne" set us to hunting up this relic. 
It is a fine stone tower in a narrow dirty quar- 
ter. The house was occupied by poor families, 
and the tower, littered with straw, was a stable 
for a horse. In front of the house, there was 
no sidewalk; streams of foul water ran along 
the sides of the pavement, a woman was wash- 
ing clothes in a tub and dirty children were at 
play. There was no trace of the glory that once 
surrounded this spot where the ruler of her 
land tarried. At the left, a flight of stone steps 
led up a narrow path, called the street of the 
Cheval Blanc, so named because Anne rode 
down these steps on a white steed when she 
came here. In spite of the squalid surround- 
ings, it required only a little imagination to 
picture the haughty duchess proudly mounted, 
riding down this stairway. 

The other memorial is the "Quiqu'en grogne 
Tower/ ' built by the duchess in defiance of the 
reigning bishop. 

The fortress of which this is the strongest 
tower had been converted into barracks for sol- 
diers, so we could not enter, neither could we 



16 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

make out the inscription Anne had placed there, 
although we were told it is still to be seen. 
The story of this fortress illustrates well the 
imperious will of the duchess, a story as fol- 
lows: 

The bishop of St. Malo, temporal lord of the 
town, objected to the erection of a castle and 
prevented Duke John IV from building one 
here, but the duchess, not willing to acknowl- 
edge any power higher than her own, deter- 
mined to have this done. She got her way by 
strategy, by asking for and obtaining permis- 
sion * ' to build a four-wheeled carriage. ' ' Then 
stone towers began to rise, until a third was 
started, when the bishop demanded an expla- 
nation. In reply the duchess showed him the 
ground plan for a fortress which resembled the 
four wheels and pole of a carriage. Expostula- 
tions and threats were in vain. The duchess 
completed the work and placed on one of the 
towers the words : 

"Quiqu'en grogne, ainsi sera: c'est mon 
plaisir." 

Grumble who will, 

So shall it be, 

As pleases me. 



CHAPTER II 

THE FATHER OF THE DUCHESS ANNE, 
THE LAST DUKE OF BRITTANY 

In our quest for the Duchess Anne we want 
to know something of her father, Francis II, 
the last duke of Brittany. He was the son of 
Richard, count of Etampes, the grandson of 
John IV, the conqueror, who was the English- 
man, John of Montfort. 

At the age of twenty-three Francis II came 
to the dukedom, not through his father, but 
through his uncle, Arthur of Brittany, who had 
no children. February 3, 1458, with his wid- 
owed mother, Marguerite of Orleans, Francis 
journeyed to Rennes for his coronation. Clad 
in deep mourning, as was the custom, he entered 
the city by the Porte Mordelaise, and, on his 
knees, humbly demanded the keys of the town. 
The bishop then opened the gate and led the 
way to the cathedral, where the ceremony was 
performed. The crown placed upon the head 

17 



18 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

of Francis was a closed one, like that of a king, 
and not the open circle of the French dukes. 
At that time Eennes was much smaller than 
it is to-day, and had narrow, winding streets, 
with houses almost meeting at the top. We 
passed under the old arch which the dukes once 
entered, but the narrow, out-of-the-way street 
and the arch itself, which we stopped to photo- 
graph, is now a tenement for the poor and no 
longer suggests pomp, power, or splendor. 

As the duke began his reign two years before 
that of Louis XI, he saw three sovereigns on 
the throne of France, — Charles VII, Louis XI, 
and Charles VIII. About three weeks after he 
was crowned Francis presented himself before 
Charles VII, king of France. As the duke did 
not make obeisance nor take off his arms and 
girdle, the master of ceremonies said, "Lord of 
Brittany, you must pay homage to your king 
and sovereign lord and promise to him faith 
and loyalty.' ' Standing erect with his sword 
at his side, the duke replied, "Sir, such homage 
as my predecessors have rendered I make like- 
wise." This meant that the duke held his 
power from God and not from the king, for 
Brittany was not a fief of the crown, like the 



FATHER OF DUCHESS ANNE 19 

other duchies, and the duke's subjects recog- 
nized him as their sovereign lord and only an 
ally of the king. Brittany was bound to fur- 
nish neither troops nor money nor send repre- 
sentatives to the government of France, but 
coined her own money, spoke her own language, 
founded her own churches, administered her 
own abbeys, and, while many Bretons finished 
their education at Paris and Angers, Brittany 
had her own schools. When Brittany sent am- 
bassadors to the king the old dukes never gave 
assistance without a statement, "that it was 
done as a favor and did not establish a prece- 
dent/ ' Even the Pope recognized the inde- 
pendence of Brittany by sending a separate bull 
to the duke every time he sent one to the king. 
For their part in the conquest of England and 
in the crusades the Bretons received as a re- 
ward the dukedom of Richmont. 

After Francis II had paid his respects to 
Charles VII he made Nantes his capital and 
built additions to the chateau, such as the 
facade with four towers, 1 three of which are 
now standing. The princely apartments in the 

i To the left, Les Tours du Pied de Biche et des Espagnols; 
to the right, Les Tours de la Boulangerie et des Jacobins. 



20 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

chateau of Nantes were furnished with the lux- 
ury of the fifteenth century. There were, in 
profusion, vessels of gold and silver, jewels, 
tapestries from Flanders and the Levant with 
scenes from holy and profane history, and pre- 
cious goods like silks, velvet, and cloth of gold. 
The duke's room was ornamented with rich 
armor, hearing the escutcheons of Brittany, in 
the midst of which were the black ermine points. 
The tapestries in the room were made at Vitre 
and Eennes by Italian workmen that the duke 
had brought over to develop industry in his 
duchy. There was a massive writing-table 
loaded with parchments where the duke did his 
writing. As Sebillot 1 writes: "Seated be- 
fore the table, he looked very distinguished; his 
face was refined, his eyes light, and gray hair 
fell over his shoulders, almost hiding his ears." 
Anne's mother, the beautiful and gracious Mar- 
guerite de Foix, was the second wife 2 of the 
duke and in every way an ideal duchess. They 
were married in 1471 and had two daughters, 
our Anne and her sister, Isabeau. 

i Paul-Yves S6billot, "Le Dernier Due de Bretagne." 

2 His first wife was his oldest cousin, Marguerite de 

Bretagne. There was one son, count of Montfort, who lived 

only a short time. 



FATHER OF DUCHESS ANNE 21 

Besides being a brave leader of the Breton 
army Francis was a loving father, and was de- 
voted to these two daughters, who returned his 
affection. In times of danger he guarded them 
carefully, keeping them with him when he could, 
or conveying them to a place of safety under 
proper guardianship. In his private life and 
on state occasions he displayed great pomp and 
ceremony, particularly when he assembled the 
States General. Lobineau's description of 
one of these occasions at Vannes in 1462 shows 
not only the magnificence indulged in by the 
duke, his pretensions to royalty, and the impor- 
tance that he and his predecessors attached to 
his title, but also the splendor into which Anne 
was born. From the " chateau of the ermine" 
came a procession : archers of the duke in robes 
embroidered in gold and silver, with escutcheons 
on their spears, then musicians, officers, re- 
tainers of the duke, and other lords, with the 
coat-of-arms in embroidery or enamel; after 
them came sergeants-at-arms bearing silver 
maces, and the ushers of the assembly-hall with 
wands. These were followed by the duke 's per- 
sonal attendants : the first equerry, holding the 
duke 's dress, hat, and sword enriched with gold 



22 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

and precious stones; the bearer of the royal 
circle, garnished with precious stones, which 
was carried upon a rich cushion, and the son of 
the admiral, carrying on a staff the cap of the 
duke trimmed with ermine. Then came the 
duke himself, clad in a voluminous mantle 
trimmed with ermine and held by four lords, 
one of whom was the grand chamberlain of 
Brittany. The chancellor and other notables 
closed the procession. 

Throughout his entire reign of thirty years 
Francis II was occupied in defending his duchy. 
During the time of Louis XI (1461-1483), 
which covered most of the duke's reign, the two 
were in a constant struggle. Louis, "the uni- 
versal spider," was weaving a web in which 
to entangle the duchies and counties, and Brit- 
tany was the last to be caught. 

The duke's relations with Louis XI make a 
fascinating chapter ; for Louis, instead of war- 
fare, the method of his ancestors, used diplo- 
macy and intrigue in dealing with friends and 
foes. He recognized Francis as an enemy and 
kept close watch over all his actions by having 
spies constantly at work and by going himself 



FATHER OF DUCHESS ANNE 23 

to Brittany under the pretext of making a pil- 
grimage. 

Francis was often sent for to come to court, 
and there he received the greatest honor France 
could bestow, — the sword of the constable. But 
the Collar of St. Michael, an order founded by 
Louis, he refused because its acceptance would 
oblige him to serve the king. 

The duke could never please the king, and in 
his decisions the king was always against the 
Bretons. Their ambassadors were continually 
going back and forth in vain. If in battle 
French and Breton soldiers were captured, the 
former were freed but not the latter. The story 
of the relations of Francis and Louis is one of 
delay and injustice and of the gradual under- 
mining of the dukedom. This was accom- 
plished largely by pensions, which won over to 
the court of France many of the leading Breton 
lords throughout the duchy. In the list it is 
astonishing to find the name of John, lord of 
Eieux, marshal of France, and his brother 
Peter, equerry of the duke; also Francoise de 
Dinan, governess of the young duchess, and 
four in the family of Eohan. Some of the pen- 



24 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

sions were as high as twelve thousand livres, 
others were only two hundred and fifty livres. 
There is record of at least one Breton noble 
who refused these favors, and doubtless there 
were others, but it was not generally considered 
treasonable to accept pensions, as they were 
given for service rendered. 

When a league called the Public Good was 
formed against the king, Duke Francis, with 
Louis of Orleans and other French malcontents, 
joined it, and at the head of an army actually 
marched against Paris. But this league was 
soon broken and the princes, including Francis, 
took an oath of fidelity to the king. This is an 
illustration of the conduct of Francis through- 
out his reign. When he dared, he openly at- 
tacked the king, but when the situation became 
dangerous, he protected himself by means of 
alliances. Once Louis XI had the malicious sat- 
isfaction of exposing the duplicity of the duke 
by the discovery of a secret correspondence 
with the king of England. The letters had 
been intrusted to a boy who had been bribed to 
give them up. When discovered, the boy con- 
fessed, was put into a sack and was drowned. 

In the presence of four ambassadors the king 



FATHER OF DUCHESS ANNE 25 

brought forth the letters and declared the duke's 
perfidy, which public exposure was the severest 
punishment Louis ever inflicted upon Francis. 

In the first years of his reign Duke Francis 
was greatly beloved by his people, and there 
was such prosperity throughout his realm that 
it was said "the peasants ate out of silver 
dishes,' ' but gradually Francis lost that love 
through the influence of two favorites, Antoi- 
nette de Maignelois, who found an asylum in his 
court, and Peter Landais, who provoked the 
nobles of Brittany by his insolence. Dominated 
by these two, the duke's subjects thought that 
he was "more occupied in pleasure than in the 
care of his duchy," and his treasury became so 
reduced that he had to put a tax on wine and 
cider to equip his army. 

Although Landais is generally spoken of as 
"low born," Leroux claims that he was "the 
son of an honorable citizen of Vitre," a mer- 
chant in silk and linen, a member of one of the 
most important guilds of the city, and that he 
followed his father's business until he had deal- 
ings with the duke by making for him beautiful 
furnishings for his house. After that he be- 
came keeper of the ducal wardrobe. That he 



26 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

was fairly well educated for the time, knew 
French well, and had business ability that 
helped the commerce and architecture which 
became so great under Francis, is proved in his 
letters. 

It was Landais' persecution of Chauvain, the 
chancellor of Brittany, which brought the duke 
into disgrace and Landais to his death. With 
the permission of the duke the chancellor was 
arrested, his goods confiscated, and his wife 
and children reduced to beggary. Although the 
accusations against the chancellor were not 
proved, he was sent from one prison to another 
until he was so emaciated that no one could 
recognize him. Indignant at such vengeance, 
the Breton lords united against the hated fav- 
orite, demanded that Landais be given up, and 
had him hanged on a gallows in the village. 

This punishment of Landais resulted in a 
temporary reconciliation of the duke with his 
lords. But even the death of Louis XI * did not 

i Louis XI had three children who survived him — Charles, 
Anne, and Jeanne. Charles became Charles VIII and first 
husband of Anne of Brittany. Anne married Peter II seigneur 
de Beaujeu, and was called Anne de Beaujeu. Jeanne (de- 
formed) married Louis d'Orleans, who became Louis XII, sec- 
ond husband of Anne of Brittany. 



FATHER OF DUCHESS ANNE 27 

end his troubles with France, for Francis had 
in reality the same enemy to combat, only "the 
enemy was a young woman instead of an old 
man. ' J 

By the will of Louis XI, Anne de Beaujeu, the 
child whom he loved best, and who inherited his 
shrewdness and ability, with unusual physical 
charms, became regent for her brother, Charles 
VIII, then only thirteen years old. When the 
princes of the blood, headed by Louis, duke of 
Orleans, were unwilling to submit to the re- 
gency of a woman, both duke Francis II and 
Maximilian joined the opposition, although par- 
liament confirmed her authority and did justice 
to her talents. But when Louis of Orleans 
sought refuge at the court of Francis in 1487, 
the Breton nobles were so displeased that they 
entered into a secret correspondence with the 
regent of France and joined the royal troops 
to chase him out of Brittany. They could 
scarcely have realized that this was betraying 
their own country into the hands of the enemy, 
but they came to their senses when the French 
laid siege to Nantes, and then it was that the 
true Breton patriotism showed itself. "From 
the farthest corners of the province the peas- 



28 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

ants rose up to a man, armed with spades and 
pitchforks, and, led on with indomitable cour- 
age, came with sixty thousand men to help their 
duke make this heroic effort to save Brittany." 

On the discovery of a treasonable correspond- 
ence between Louis, then at the court of Fran- 
cis, and Commines, the celebrated historian, 
Anne de Beaujeu, accompanied by the king, in- 
vaded Brittany and began to ravage the coun- 
try. Whenever the forces met, as they often 
did, the king was generally victorious. 

In May, 1487, the king's army, under the com- 
mand of La Tremoille, entered Brittany, which 
they were nevermore to leave. After a cam- 
paign of fourteen months the Bretons, com- 
manded by d Albert, aided by Lord Nouville 
with English soldiery, sustained a terrible de- 
feat on July 27, 1488, in the battle of St. Aubin- 
du-Cormier. Among the prisoners of war were 
the duke of Orleans, leader of the French di- 
vision, and the prince of Orange, nephew and 
favorite of Francis II. For nearly three years 
Louis was a prisoner at Bourges, shut up in an 
iron cage, until at last Charles set him free. 
Louis, overjoyed, fell on his knees weeping be- 
fore the king, who then gave him the greatest 



FATHER OF DUCHESS ANNE 29 

mark of friendship, naming him governor of 
Normandy. 

This defeat of the Bretons spread terror 
throughout the duchy and forced the duke to 
sign the disgraceful treaty of Sable, a powerful 
link in the chain which afterward bound Anne. 
By this treaty the duke gave up four cities * to 
Charles ; promised to send out of Brittany those 
foreigners who had made war on the king, 
which was practically to give up any alliance 
with England; never to receive the king's ene- 
mies ; and to marry his daughters only with the 
consent of the king of France. It is easy to 
see what a factor this was in Anne's marriage 
later with Charles VIII, and how with this 
treaty disappeared the precautions that Francis 
had taken for years against France. Having 
only two youthful daughters to inherit the 
duchy, he had neglected nothing to secure the 
ducal crown. Not ignorant that the king of 
France and several barons of Brittany made 
pretensions to this heritage, he had, since 1485, 
made his nobles, 2 ecclesiastics, and common 
people swear upon the holy sacrament and the 

iFougeres, Dinan, St. Aubin, and St. Malo. 
2 Among these was Baron d'Avaugour, the son of Antoinette 
de Maignelois, the "natural brother" of Anne. 



30 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

most sacred relics not to recognize any sov- 
ereign except his two daughters, Anne and Isa- 
beau. With the same thought in mind he be- 
trothed Anne to the son of the king of Eng- 
land. But in spite of all he could do, Francis 
must have felt a power stronger than his closing 
about his duchy. 

Three weeks after the defeat of St. Aubin, 
Duke Francis was thrown from his horse and 
received an injury from which he never re- 
covered. He died, broken-hearted by his losses 
and overwhelmed by his misfortunes, Septem- 
ber 9, 1488, at the age of fifty-three in the 
chateau of Gazoire at Coueron on the right bank 
of the Loire. His will contained one touching 
clause: "I commend my soul to God and im- 
plore the intercession of the holy Virgin Mary, 
the saints and the angels in Paradise, and par- 
ticularly of St. Francis, whose name I bear." 
He charged "all on his side, to supplicate and 
requite the king," which greatly touched 
Charles VIII. 

To see the tomb erected by Anne for her 
father and mother, we went to the cathedral at 
Nantes, which was begun in the middle of the 
eleventh century and is not yet finished. Its 



FATHER OF DUCHESS ANNE 31 

enormous pillars and its great doors richly 
ornamented first attracted our attention; then 
the interior, which has a lofty nave and beauti- 
ful arches separating the aisles. While we 
were in the cathedral the funeral of a priest 
was taking place. The body, reposing on a cata- 
falque, was draped in black, with tapers at the 
head and feet. The procession consisted of 
priests, relatives, and friends who seemed to 
be sincere mourners. The service was orderly 
and solemn, the congregation uniting in prayer 
and reading. 

After the service we were shown about by a 
verger, clad in gorgeous red robes that might 
have graced a cardinal. At the tomb of Anne 's 
parents we lingered long, with a desire to take 
a photograph, but the height of the monument 
proved such an obstacle that the verger came 
forward to assist us. Evidently he appreciated 
our unusual interest, for finally, to our great 
surprise, he helped our photographer mount to 
the top of a confessional, that she might have 
the right angle for her camera. 

On the top of the monument are two recum- 
bent statues of Anne's father and mother, ex- 
quisitely sculptured and lying on an immense 



32 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

slab of black marble. The faces of both are 
beautiful. At the head is the figure of a lion 
and at the feet a greyhound ; at the four corners 
are life-size allegorical statues representing 
Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence, and Justice ; 
the latter is said to be the portrait of Anne 
herself. Around the sides are representations 
of Louis, Charlemagne, and the twelve Apostles 
in white marble, and beneath them several 
monks in black and white. On a brass plate at 
the head of the tomb is this inscription: 

"Tombeau de Francois Deux, Dernier Due de 
Bretagne, mort a Coueron le 9 Septembre 1488; de 
Marguerite de Bretagne, Sa Premiere Femme, et 
de Marguerite de Foix, Sa Seconde Femme. Les 
Restes d Arthur, Troisieme Due de Bretagne, Comte 
de Richmont, Connetable de France, mort a Nantes le 
26 Decembre 1458, y'ont ete deposes le 28 Aoiit 1817.' ' 

During the French Eevolution the tomb was 
rifled of its contents but was saved from de- 
struction by some monks, who took it to pieces 
and buried it. It was erected again in 1817. 
The sculptor was Michel Colomb, and the tomb 
is often called "the finest monument of the Mid- 
dle Ages." 



FATHER OF DUCHESS ANNE 33 

In spite of his weakness, and in spite of what 
the French call "his treason against France," 
Francis II was a valiant prince. Living at an 
epoch between the Middle Ages and the Renais- 
sance, he was always on the side of progress; 
encouraged commerce and industry; obtained 
from Pope Sixtus authority to build a college 
at Nantes and permission to trade in Turkey 
and other infidel countries; called from Italy 
workers in silk; opened tapestry factories at 
Rennes and Nantes; built ships to trade with 
England, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Spain, 
and even the Levant ; was a patron of art, then 
in its beginning ; collected a large library, which 
Anne inherited; and made agriculture so flour- 
ishing that Brittany raised more wheat than 
she needed. 

Although the story of Duke Francis is not 
so dramatic as that of Montezuma of Mexico 
or of Boabdil of Granada, it practically brings 
us to the end of an old and powerful sover- 
eignty, for with the reign of Francis II per- 
ished the last duke of Brittany, and the time 
drew nigh when the feudal system was to give 
place to royal authority. Had a son succeeded 



34 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

Francis, it is doubtful if the reign could have 
been prolonged, for Brittany had always been 
the desire of many countries, and France, as 
the most natural owner, would have secured it 
sooner or later. 




Window of the Room where Anne was Born. 
Chateau of Nantes. 



CHAPTEE III 

BIETH AND YOUTH OF ANNE OF 
BEITTANY 

To visit Anne's birthplace, we made the trip 
from St. Malo to Nantes, stopping off for din- 
ner at Eedon, a city prominent in Anne's time 
and preserving her name in a square called La 
Place de la Duchesse Anne. On the way we saw 
a train of almost innumerable cars crowded 
with men and women, many of them priests and 
nuns, on the way to St. Jean du Doigt, where 
Anne went more than once, just as they were 
now going, on a pilgrimage. 

It was in the addition built by Francis, with 
its delicately sculptured windows and bal- 
conies, beautiful towers, and magnificent apart- 
ments, that she first saw light and where she 
spent most of her childhood. 

Naturally the place of greatest interest to us 
in Nantes was this fortress-chateau, where, on 
January 26, 1476, at half -past five in the morn- 
ing, the Duchess Anne, called Anne de Dreux, 
was born. After the death of her father the 

35 



36 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

duchess desired to complete his work, and it is 
to her that we owe the Grand Logis and the 
famous Horseshoe Tower. As the castle, when 
we were there, was used for barracks and 
Anne's chamber was occupied by an officer, we 
were not permitted to enter, but had to be con- 
tent with a photograph of its window, which 
looked upon the courtyard. 

Although Francis desired a son and heir, he 
was so pleased with his girl baby that he car- 
ried her to the roof, where the people below 
could see him and shout their congratulations. 
Little did he dream that he was bearing in his 
arms a child destined to be " twice queen of 
France"! 

To serve as nurse for the royal baby, the wife 
of Jean Eon was chosen in Rennes, over a hun- 
dred miles away. Very early Anne's educa- 
tion was intrusted to one of the greatest ladies 
of the duchy, Fran^oise de Dinan, of the house 
of d Albert, dame of Chateaubriand and of 
Laval. The house of Laval included, among its 
alliances, several crowned heads, and claimed 
precedence over the house of Rohan, one of the 
greatest in the land. 

FranQoise de Dinan had had a sad romance. 







Horseshoe Tower.— Chateau of Nantes. 



BIRTH AND YOUTH 37 

From infancy she had been betrothed to the 
count of Laval, bnt at the death of her father, 
when she was only eight years old, she was 
forcibly carried off by Gilles de Bretagne, who 
afterward neglected his young wife. Gilles 
was the brother of Duke Francis and the third 
son of John V. He had been reared in England, 
and his enemies used forged letters to accuse 
him of treason with the English. Dragged 
from prison to prison, he was saved from star- 
vation by a woman who heard his piteous cry, 
"Du pain, pour V amour de Bleu," and gave 
him daily a loaf of black bread while his life 
lasted. He was suffocated between mattresses 
by his jailers. Then Francoise, refusing the 
duke of Brittany, who wanted to marry her, 
married the aged count of Laval, the father of 
her betrothed, and bore him three sons. 

By her intelligence Francoise was worthy of 
the eminent position which she was to occupy 
as the tutor of Anne. She neglected nothing, 
not even the study of Greek and Latin, to ren- 
der as complete as possible the education of 
the future duchess. As books in Hebrew and 
Italian were found in Anne's library, it may 
be supposed that she knew something of these 



38 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

languages also. So ably was her education 
directed that when only nine years old Anne 
assisted at the farces given at Nantes by three 
companies of the Gallands Sans Soucy, to whom 
she gave especial patronage. Even at this time 
she was an accomplished princess, and Louis of 
Orleans was astonished at her charms and pre- 
cocity. Three years later she was proficient 
enough in composition and writing to send to 
Maximilian of Austria an account of the battle 
of St. Aubin-du-Cormier and of other events in 
Brittany. Later in life she composed verses 
and sonnets and wrote letters in Latin to her 
second husband, King Louis XII. Her train- 
ing could not have been confined to books, for 
she was proficient in the management of her 
household, skilled in embroidery, and clever in 
the details of her wardrobe. To the latter she 
must have given personal supervision, as she 
invented a headdress for herself, — a small, 
round, velvet cap with a turned-up brim edged 
with gold and pearls, and with a long floating 
veil of Italian tissue attached to it by a diamond 
brooch. In her fondness for out-of-door life 
Anne foreshadowed the modern woman, for she 
was an expert on horseback and the chosen 



BIRTH AND YOUTH 39 

partner of King Charles in his games of tennis. 
Her love of flowers, well shown in her garden 
at Blois, where she had seven hundred different 
species, implies an intimate relation with na- 
ture. Even insects interested her, for when her 
beloved flowers and plants are beautifully rep- 
resented in her "Book of Hours," moths, 
caterpillars, and brilliantly colored bugs are 
prominent in the illustrations. 

To the question of the marriage of Anne the 
most solicitous thought was given, for this was 
of the greatest importance to her father and 
to the duchy. So numerous were her suitors 
that it was said "her father's policy was to 
make himself five or six sons-in-law by means 
of one daughter. ' ' At the age of five the duke 
had her betrothed to Edward, son of Edward 
IV of England, but the assassination of this 
prince by his uncle frustrated the hope of an 
English alliance. 

Early in Anne's youth began that storm and 
stress, the loss and bereavement, that shadowed 
her short but eventful life. In her ninth year 
she met with her first great sorrow in the death 
of her saintly mother, Marguerite de Foix, who 
died after a brief illness. Little is recorded 



40 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

of her except her physical beauty and loveliness 
of character, her high birth, and her devotion 
to her daughters, who, young as they were, 
mourned her deeply. After the loss of his wife 
the duke was even more attentive to his little 
girls and provided wisely for them. 

Three years later Francis died, and then, in 
two years, Anne's next of kin, her sister Isa- 
beau, passed away at Eennes, August, 1490, at 
the close of the siege of that city. 

We can but think how much comfort the com- 
panionship of a sister so near her own age 
might have been, and how lonely and bereft 
the duchess must have felt when this sister was 
taken from her. Although Isabeau was not 
quite twelve years old, her hand had already 
been sought by Philip, the son of Maximilian, 
by a son of Eohan, and by a son of Alain. 
Anne herself favored for her sister the alliance 
with Philip. It is interesting to note how often 
in her life Anne showed this preference for 
marriage with the house of Austria. First for 
her sister, then for herself, and, lastly, for both 
her daughters, Claude and Eenee. But this 
wish was never destined to be fulfilled by any 
permanent relation. In fact, as we look over 



BIRTH AND YOUTH 41 

the life of the duchess, we fail to see that her 
hopes or plans were ever realized. Her strong- 
est desire must have been to rule her own 
duchy, but she could do that only by joining it 
to France, the country she did not love. Her 
natural wish for a son to succeed her was 
doomed again and again to disappointment. 
Yet all this battering against the strong fortress 
of her indomitable character never weakened 
its strength during her whole turbulent life. 

When Anne was eight years old, Louis, who 
was destined to be her second husband, paid his 
first visit to the duke at Nantes, and two years 
later, while plotting against the queen-regent 
of France, Anne de Beaujeu, he sought refuge 
there with four hundred lancers. A report that 
he aspired to the hand of the duchess became 
so general that he made a public declaration 
' ' that his visits were solely for business with 
her father.' ' But many believe that their love 
began at this time, and it is easy to weave a 
web of romance around this meeting of the 
young people. Surely Duke Francis gave him 
a right royal reception; tapestries were hung 
from every window, oriental rugs were spread 
in the courtyard ; gallant knights, music, and a 



42 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

great feast greeted this exile from the French 
kingdom. Francis himself, in ducal robes, re- 
ceived with the Lady Anne, who wore a quaint 
Breton cap and a rich gown whose train was 
heavy with gold embroidery. 

"Gladly did Louis tarry here in this splendid 
castle, but, while the nobles planned war, Louis 
was content to sit in my lady's bower and hold 
her skeins of silk. Let us hide behind the tap- 
estries and listen to them; 'Methinks,' said the 
Duchess Anne, 'you have wrongly chosen your 
emblem, — that of the porcupine with quills out- 
spread, — since none of the quills fly when you 
are insulted.' 

' ' Flushing furiously, Louis answered : ' And 
your emblem, my lady; why have you chosen 
the ermine which you flaunt so on every oc- 
casion! Do you not know that only the queens 
of our country wear that 1 9 

" 'Never shall I wed any but a king; so have 
I vowed to myself,' retorted the duchess. 

" 'If that be the case, I go away, to return 
only when I can offer to the Duchess Anne the 
kingdom of France.' " 

In after years, when they were king and 
queen, the memory of this early attachment 



BIRTH AND YOUTH 43 

must have strengthened the tie between them. 
Among the thrilling events of this period 
which must have lived in the memory of Anne, 
was the uprising against Landais. At a time 
when the duke's thoughts were occupied with 
a proposed attack upon the French at Ancenis, 
suddenly, without the least warning, a company 
of armed men swarmed about the castle of 
Nantes and clamored for vengeance upon the 
hated favorite. Francis, astonished and be- 
wildered as to the meaning of the demonstra- 
tion, sent one of his ambassadors, his wife's 
brother, to address the mob. Nearly smothered 
by the crowd, and unable to send his voice above 
the cries of " Landais! Landais! down with 
Landais!" the Count de Foix returned to the 
duke, saying: "Sir, I swear to you, I would 
rather be the head of a million of wild boars 
than of your Bretons. You must give up your 
treasurer or there is no safety for you or your 
daughters." Although forced to yield to such 
importunity, the duke did not lose his dignity 
nor judgment, for, as he delivered his victim 
over to the pursuers, Francis commanded that 
"a trial should be conducted with the strictest 
justice." During this trial guards were placed 



44 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

about the castle and all communication with the 
outside prevented. For once in her life, Anne 
went through the experience of being a pris- 
oner, even though the prison was her father's 
own fortress. 

At the age of eleven the stirring events of 
war came into Anne 's life, when eight thousand 
French entered Nantes, where she was dwell- 
ing with her father, and besieged the castle, 
with the real object of subduing Brittany, al- 
though their declared purpose was to punish 
Francis for promising Anne to Maximilian and 
for conspiring with the discontented French 
nobles. With his usual care for his daughters, 
the duke had them and the women of the house- 
hold removed for safety to the Hotel de la 
Bouvardiere, a house built by Landais and still 
standing. They went none too soon, for after 
they left, a stray shot from artillery posted 
on the heights penetrated the duke's room. At 
this time Anne must have been proud of the 
loyalty of the Bretons to her father, for it is 
stated that even the country people hastened 
to his assistance, and "that the throng was so 
great that, like the army of Xerxes, in passing 
a small river, they drank it dry." 



BIRTH AND YOUTH 45 

Another striking episode in Anne's youth is 
the siege of Gwengamp, when the duke was be- 
set by the French army and betrayed by his 
own nobles, especially by the Eohans. These 
latter were so hated for their disloyalty that 
a proverb arose, "He eats at the manger like 
Bohan," meaning at the table of the king of 
France. One of this family tried to persuade 
the people of Gwengamp to espouse the inter- 
ests of the king on the ground that it was for 
the advantage of the duchess, but they refused 
to act under any orders except those of the 
duchess herself. The incident of Gwengamp 
has been written into a poem, not quite ac- 
curate as to details, as Anne was not herself 
present in the citadel, but stirring and refresh- 
ing for its tone of patriotism. 

THE SIEGE OF GWENGAMP 
(Dialect of Treguier) 

"Porter, open this door! It is the sire of Rohan 
who is here, and twelve thousand men with him, ready 
to lay siege to Gwengamp." 

' ' This door will not be opened to you or to any one 
without an order from the Duchess Anne, to whom 
this city belongs. 

"Will one open these doors to the disloyal prince 



46 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

who is here with twelve thousand men ready to lay 
siege to Gwengamp ? 

"My doors are strong and my walls crenellated; I 
should blush to listen to the enemy ; the city of Gwen- 
gamp will not be taken. 

"Even though they should pass eighteen months 
here, they would not take it. Load your cannon. 
Courage ! Let us see who will rue the day. 

i i There are thirty bullets here, thirty shots in order 
to load it ; powder we are not lacking, nor lead nor tin 
either." 

As he was coming back and climbing up, he was 
wounded by a gunshot, by a gunshot from a soldier 
of the camp named Gwazgarant. 

The Duchess Anne then said to the wife of the 
gunner: "Lord God! What are we going to do? 
There is your poor husband wounded ! ' ' 

"Even though my husband were dead, I should 
know how indeed to replace him ! His cannon I will 
load. Fire and thunder! and we shall see." 

As she spoke these words the walls were shattered, 
the doors were forced, the city was full of soldiers. 

* ' For you, soldiers, the pretty girls, and for me gold 
and silver, all the treasures of the city of Gwengamp, 
and, what is more, the city itself. ' ' 

The Duchess Anne cast herself upon her knees, 
hearing him speak thus : * ' Our Lady of Good Aid, I 
beg you to come to our rescue ! ' ' 

The Duchess Anne hearing him, rushed to the 
church and threw herself on her knees upon the cold 
and bare ground. 

"Virgin Mary, would you like to see your house 



BIRTH AND YOUTH 47 

changed into a stable, your vestry into a cellar, and 
your high altar into a kitchen table?'' 

She was still speaking when a great fear took pos- 
session of the city; a cannon shot had just been fired 
and nine hundred men were killed. 

And there was the most frightful disorder ; and the 
houses were rocking and all the bells were ringing, 
were ringing of their own accord. 

"Page, my page, little page, thou art swift, 
sprightly, and eager; climb to the top of the flat 
tower in order to see who is setting the bells going. 

"Thou art carrying a sword at thy side; if thou 
findest any one there ; if thou findest some one who is 
ringing them, plunge thy sword into his heart ! ' ' 

While going up he was cheerfully singing; upon 
coming down he was trembling very much. "I have 
climbed even to the top of the flat tower, and I have 
seen nobody. 

"And I have seen no one save the Blessed Virgin, — 
the Virgin Mary and her Son ; they it is who are mak- 
ing the bells ring. ' ' 

The disloyal prince then said to his soldiers, "Let 
us saddle our horses and be off, and let us leave the 
saints their houses ! ' ' 

But the other side of the picture shows 
splendor and gayety in the life of the duchy. 
In the novel, "Le Dernier Due de Blague,'' 
Sebillot describes a ball which Anne attended. 
On that occasion the room of state in her 



48 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

father 's chateau was brilliantly lighted and full 
of people in gay costumes. 

About nine o'clock the door opens and a her- 
ald announces, "His Highness Francis II, duke 
of Brittany." The groups stop circulating, 
and two guards, armed cap-a-pie make way for 
the duke, who advances to the end of the room 
and seats himself upon a chair reserved for 
him. He is a tall man of beautiful appearance 
and dignified bearing. He wears an expression 
of sympathy and at the same time of nobility 
that inspires respect, — respect not born of fear 
but for a clement prince, for the duke has made 
Brittany the most prosperous country of Eu- 
rope. Behind him comes the Duchess Anne, 
not yet ten years old, who advances, holding by 
the hand her sister Isabeau, a little younger 
than herself; then follow others of the court, 
— ministers, the chancellor of Brittany, the 
grand treasurer, the presidents of the states, 
and the principal rulers of the city. When the 
duke and his suite have taken their places the 
music begins. After this a minstrel, accom- 
panying himself on the harp, sings, in French, 
Breton, and Latin, a song in honor of the duke. 
This song relates how, a thousand years before, 



BIRTH AND YOUTH 49 

the Bretons had come to Armorica, driven out 
by the Saxons of England where they had lived. 
Then he sings of the conquest by the Franks, 
whom Nominoe expelled, making the country 
independent, and of the history of the dukes of 
Brittany from Alain to the Constable of Bich- 
mond, father of the present duke, ending with 
a magnificent eulogy of Francis II. This is re- 
ceived with enthusiastic applause. Following 
the singing, folk-dances in costumes of the dif- 
ferent parts of Brittany close the evening's fes- 
tivities. 

There were frequent changes of residence 
during the life of Anne's father, and the last 
was to the chateau on the Loire, where the duke 
died, — a move made necessary by the plague 
then raging at Nantes. Both Anne and Isabeau 
were with their father during the battle of St. 
Aubin, his last sickness, and at his death, events 
that must have made a deep and lasting impres- 
sion of grief and disappointment on the duchess, 
although immediately succeeded by overwhelm- 
ing honor and responsibility, as she passed from 
the protection of a loving father to the admin- 
istration of a powerful duchy. 



CHAPTEE IV 

ANNE, THE DUCHESS OF BRITTANY, 
1488-1491 

Immediately after their father's death the 
two daughters of the duke were removed for 
safety to Guerande, near Rennes, and Anne was 
proclaimed duchess of Brittany. Even at the 
age of twelve Anne was prepared for her great 
inheritance, both by endowment and by train- 
ing, and was ready for its responsibilities. 

But when an embassy announced the event 
to Charles VIII, he claimed the guardianship 
of the two heiresses, in spite of the fact that 
the duke's will gave it to Marshal de Rieux, 1 to 
the count of Commines 2 and to Madame Laval, 
Anne's governess, with instructions to confer 
with Dunois. 3 Charles asserted that Anne 

iJohn, Lord of Rieux, Marshal of Bretagne, born June, 
1447; died February, 1518. 

2 Philip de Commines, famous historian, born 1447. His 
memoirs, and the histories of Louis XI, Charles VIII, and 
Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, are still authoritative. 
Philip de Commines died, 15 11. 

s Francis of Origans, count of Dunois, was born in 1447; was 
Grand Chamberlain of France in 1485; and died November 

50 




Anne, Duchess of Brittany, at fifteen years of age. 



THE DUCHESS OF BRITTANY 51 

should not assume her title of duchess until the 
question of succession had been submitted to a 
court of arbitration. When this demand was 
rejected, a French army invaded Brittany with 
the purpose of forcing the orphan into submis- 
sion. 

What position could have been more difficult ! 
Euler over a domain that had long been cov- 
eted by all Europe, threatened on every side, 
by the French king and his army that already 
held four of her cities, bound by a treaty that 
had sent away the English allies, deserted by 
many of her nobles, who were won over to the 
service of France, embarrassed by a treasury 
so depleted that there was not enough money 
to pay her soldiers, driven from her capital by 
the plague and harassed by many unacceptable 
suitors, what was the young maid to do ? 

Such a situation would have taxed the wis- 
dom and fortitude of a strong and experienced 
statesman, but the duchess proved equal to the 
occasion, and both her friends and foes saw 
that, "instead of a weak young girl, they had 
to deal with a determined, brave, and indomi- 

25, 1491. He was a son of the celebrated Bastard of Orleans, 
distinguished in the wars against the English in the time of 
Joan of Arc, 



52 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

table woman.' ' All the strong points of her 
character showed themselves at this early age. 
This seemed such a marvel that it is doubtless 
explained in part by the discipline of those 
troublous times under which men and women 
came very early to mature judgment and re- 
sponsibility. 

When the duchess saw that, in spite of the 
treaty of Sable, Anne de Beaujeu, the regent, 
and her brother Charles, the king of France, 
were determined to conquer Brittany, she acted 
promptly and decisively. To be sure of the 
support of her government she confirmed Mon- 
tauban as chancellor and de Bieux as marshal. 
She assembled immediately the States General, 
and by her leadership impressed her ministers 
with her executive ability. To raise money she 
pawned some of her jewels, her communion 
service, gilt flagons in Venetian work, and two 
large bonbonnieres of Milan work, both orna- 
mented with enamel. She made a fresh coin- 
age of leather tipped with silver, which was 
called " black money" and had been in use be- 
fore her time. To secure aid, she went, as any 
of her predecessors would have done, to Eng- 
land. As a result of her appeal Henry VII 



THE DUCHESS OF BRITTANY 53 

formed a league with the rival powers, Maxi- 
milian of Austria and Ferdinand and Isabella 
of Spain, and in 1489 their forces landed on the 
coast of Brittany. 

Then the marriage of Anne became a ques- 
tion of European politics. Brittany, the last of 
the great fiefs, should it be united to France? 
England, Spain, and Austria were steadily 
growing more powerful and trying to absorb 
the provinces that now belonged to France. 

Anne was determined to keep her duchy in- 
dependent, and in this effort her suitors greatly 
complicated her difficulties. Among the claim- 
ants for her hand were the duke of Eichmond ; 
John, the prince of Spain; Louis, duke of Or- 
leans ; Maximilian, king of the Eomans ; Charles 
VIII, king of France; and Breton nobles, who 
urged their suit on the ground that "no foreign 
alliance would guarantee the independence of 
their country.' ' 

Chief among these latter were three, John 
de Chalons, prince of Orange, the viscount 
de Eohan, and Alain d 'Albert. The first was a 
cousin of Anne — the son of a sister of Duke 
Francis — who later yielded in favor of Maxi- 
milian. The second claimed direct descent 



M ANNE OF BRITTANY 

from the first king of Brittany, and proposed 
the marriage of his two sons, one with Anne 
and the other with Isabeau. Unfortunately for 
Bohan he had been for many years an officer 
in the French army and his plea was set aside. 
The third suitor was one of the most powerful 
lords of France, a Breton on his mother's side, 
possessor of important fiefs and commander of 
a hundred lancers. His suit was urged warmly 
by his sister, Anne's governess, and also by 
Bieux, who declared " that of the suitors, he was 
the most capable of saving Brittany.' ' But to 
the duchess he was impossible, for d 'Albert was 
nearly fifty years old, a widower with eight 
children, and his face was so disagreeable and 
his manner so fierce that the mere sight of him 
frightened her and made her tremble. Anne 
declared publicly "that she would never con- 
sent to marry Alain." When the latter heard 
this, he went into a fit of temper and sought to 
win her by force ; but declaring that she would 
"rather die a nun" than yield, Anne, like an- 
other Joan of Arc, bravely mounted a horse 
and, at the head of her archers, put the troops 
of her suitor to flight. Meanwhile Dunois and 
Chancellor Montauban, who sincerely loved the 



THE DUCHESS OF BRITTANY 55 

duchess, would not see her sacrificed, and they, 
with the prince of Orange and the duke of Or- 
leans, undertook to arrange a marriage with 
Maximilian, Anne's own choice, for of all the 
princes of Europe she believed him to be the 
best friend of Brittany. Besides, had she not 
been promised to him by her father ? This fact, 
although often overlooked, must have had great 
weight with Anne. 

Finally the duchess decided that, in order to 
make herself strong against France, she would 
marry the emperor. 1 He was twenty-nine 
years old, gigantic in stature and renowned in 
war ; a widower, with a son Philip and a daugh- 
ter Marguerite. In literary culture Maximilian 
surpassed his contemporaries, and this may 
have had some influence with the duchess, as 
she ever appreciated learning. The wedding, 
which took place in 1490, was a marriage by 
proxy. Since Maximilian could not come, he 
sent his emissary, Polhain, count of Nassau, in 
his place, and the ceremony was conducted in 

i Maximilian of Austria, son of Frederick III and Eleanor 
of Portugal, born March 22, 1459; crowned king of the Ro- 
mans, April 9, 1486; married Mary of Burgundy, August 20, 
1477, and Bianca Maria, widow of Philibert, duke of Savoy, 
in 1499; died January 12, 1519. 



56 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

the strange German fashion. The young prin- 
cess, dressed as a bride, 1 received in bed the 
aged ambassador, who, in the presence of three 
envoys, of her governess, and other of the house- 
hold, held in his hand the procuration of the em- 
peror, and introduced one leg, bared to the knee, 
into the bridal couch, while the other leg re- 
mained booted and spurred. 

When the details of the ceremony were 
known they became a subject of mirth and mock- 
ery in both France and Brittany. In truth this 
marriage was really a violation of the last 
treaty with France, the treaty of Verger, which 
stipulated "that Anne was not to marry with- 
out the consent of the king," but Brittany 
claimed that it was permitted by another treaty, 
the treaty of Ulm. 

The terms of this marriage-contract were : 

1. If the king of the Eomans died without 
heir, the duchess would be free to return to 
Brittany. 

2. If the duchess died without heir, Maxi- 
milian should make no claims on the duchy and 
should withdraw his troops. 

i A custom that later was popular with the noble ladies of 
France. 



THE DUCHESS OF BRITTANY 57 

3. Maximilian should levy no taxes without 
the consent of the States General. 

4. The commanders should always be natives 
of Brittany. 

5. The first child should be brought up in 
Brittany. 

6. The king should not make war except by 
consent of the Bretons. 

A series of fetes and banquets followed the 
wedding, and public acts were rendered in the 
names of Maximilian and Anne, "king and 
queen of the Eomans, duke and duchess of Brit- 
tany.' ' 

As soon as Sire d Albert learned of the mar- 
riage he was furious, and speedily revenged 
himself by taking possession of the jewels of 
the duchess and by betraying the castle of 
Nantes into the hands of King Charles, who 
came from Tours to receive in person the sub- 
mission of the castle and to place a company 
of one thousand foot-soldiers on guard. 

Then the warlike spirit of the duchess was 
aroused, and she determined to direct affairs 
herself with such forces as she could muster; 
but, without the cheval noir * of later days, mo- 

i Locomotive. 



58 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

bilization was a difficult matter, and weeks were 
required to get together a few thousand men. 
As it was, the troops she could depend upon 
were mainly English, German, and Spanish 
archers, the latter sent by Maximilian to aid her, 
— mercenary troops unable to cope with the dis- 
ciplined army of France. With Marshal de 
Eieux in command, and with a few Breton 
barons who remained faithful, her natural 
brother among them, she determined to con- 
tend against the French, a task that only the 
intrepidity of youth could have failed to see 
was impossible. 

While aid from England was delayed, much 
to the disappointment of the English people, 
who had great sympathy for the duchess, she 
fled to Eedon, but becoming anxious to depart, 
as it was not fortified, she sent for de Eieux 
and Commines to conduct her to Nantes. In- 
stead of obeying, they remained with d Albert, 
the rejected suitor. Whereupon Anne, fear- 
less and indignant, mounted her own horse, and, 
behind the chancellor, 1 with a guard of ten 
Bretons only, rode to a little town within three 

lit was the custom of noble ladies not to ride alone, but 
to mount behind their husbands or officials. 



THE DUCHESS OF BRITTANY 59 

leagues of the capital where she was met by 
her loyal Dunois and his troops. The duchess 
sent forward a herald to request that the gates 
be opened to her, only to receive the reply that 
"she herself was free to enter with her private 
guard and household but Dunois and Montau- 
ban must remain outside.' ' On her refusal to 
do this, d 'Albert, de Eieux, and Commines 
marched out of the town with an army to com- 
pel her to enter alone. Even then the duchess 
showed no fear, but rode bravely forward while 
Dunois ordered her troops to be drawn up in 
line of battle. Her own people, however, would 
not tolerate such indignity as an armed force 
against their duchess. A parley ensued and a 
proposition was made that Anne enter by "the 
side gate" into the castle, but she impetuously 
declared ' ' she would enter only as a duchess and 
sovereign. ' ' 

How tragic it seems, in view of the duke's 
labors in Nantes and his pride in making it one 
of the finest cities in Europe, that so soon after 
his death it should refuse admission to his two 
daughters, one of them the ruler of his heredi- 
tary domain! 

Very soon the duchess realized that there was 



60 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

a plan on the part of de Eieux and &' Albert to 
get her into their power, so she sent a messen- 
ger to the people of Nantes, asking for a con- 
ference. They appointed deputies, but de 
Eieux restrained them, and for two weeks Anne 
was kept in the suburbs. At the end of that 
time it seemed best to depart, and she proceeded 
toward Vannes, followed by de Eieux and his 
men. When they overtook her, instead of flee- 
ing, she rode boldly up to the marshal, re- 
proached him for his disloyalty, and bade him 
go. Her great courage so awed the soldiers 
that they allowed her to continue her journey. 
Eeceiving an invitation from the citizens of 
Eennes to honor them with her presence, she 
gladly accepted, and entered that city with the 
pomp and enthusiasm due her rank, showered 
with gifts, and offered every possible protec- 
tion. With her in Eennes were the prince of 
Orange, whom she replaced in command, Mar- 
shal Polhain, and a few faithful barons. There 
were now three parties in Brittany, — that of the 
duchess with Dunois and Montauban, that of de 
Eieux and d 'Albert, and that of King Charles. 
Had it not been for this civil strife which lasted 



THE DUCHESS OF BRITTANY 61 

eight months, the duchess would probably have 
led an army against France. 

Although de Eieux seemed to be a traitor, and 
although the duchess so informed England, he 
was not one in reality, for his real object in 
wishing her to marry d Albert was to keep her 
from marrying the French king, whom he justly 
suspected her friends were inclined to favor. 

That the duchess understood all this later is 
proved by the fact that Marshal de Eieux was 
long in her service, for in 1502, in spite of his 
age, he commanded the army of her husband, 
Louis XII, in Languedoc. At that time, during 
a severe illness, as de Eieux did not leave his 
post, Anne sent him a letter in her own hand 
beginning : 

"My Cousin: 

' ' The king writes for you to come at once be- 
cause of your illness. Here you can rest and 
gain faster, and he assures you that he is well 
content with you. ' ' 

While the duchess was still at Eennes, about 
the time of the feast of All Saints, 1491, that 
city was besieged by a mighty army under the 
leadership of the king. 



62 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

During the first days of the siege a feat of 
chivalry took place which made a pleasant in- 
terlude. De Foix, mounted like St. George, ap- 
proached Eennes and asked to break a lance 
before the ladies. A Breton gentleman duly 
presented himself for the combat, and the 
duchess, with a numerous escort, witnessed the 
scene from a platform erected over the fosse 
surrounding the village, and at its close served 
wine and spices to the victor. 

Charles prosecuted the siege with much vigor, 
and the duchess, shut up in Eennes, shared its 
privations, seeing food and money diminishing 
day by day and sorrowing over the death of her 
sister. One morning the beating of the great 
drums of her German soldiers, followed by a de- 
mand, in which the English joined, for a week's 
pay in advance, sounded a mournful knell and 
brought matters to a crisis. Charles, ready to 
seize his opportunity, presented terms to the 
duchess : a hundred thousand crowns a year and 
her choice of three husbands, 1 on condition 
that she would give up the government of Brit- 
tany and cease to live either in Eennes or 

i Louis of Luxembourg, the duke of Nemours, and the count 
of AngoulSme. 



THE DUCHESS OF BRITTANY 63 

Nantes. To the offer of money she disdained 
to make reply, but to that of matrimony an- 
swered, "I am already married to the king of 
the Romans." Seeing her firm in her resolu- 
tion, the French king pressed her still harder 
by bribing her garrison to leave Rennes and by 
offering her a safe-conduct for ner husband, 
Maximilian. Her counselors thought that 
these terms were merciless to her and danger- 
ous to Brittany, and that it was their duty to 
influence the duchess to yield to her powerful 
enemy. 

To save their country and to steer its ruler 
through the Scylla and Charybdis by which she 
was hemmed in, they clearly saw only one way, 
and that was the marriage of the two rival 
powers, of whom only the duchess needed to be 
won over. The king's intentions were well un- 
derstood, and the fact that neither of the par- 
ties was free did not present any great obstacle 
in those days when "the good of the state' ' 
easily made or annulled a marriage. That of 
Anne to Maximilian could be set aside, as hus- 
band and wife had never even seen each other ; 
that of Marguerite to Charles was only a be- 



64 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

trothal, although she had long been regarded 
as the future queen of France. 

The only real drawback was the strong will 
of the duchess and her bitter feeling against 
her foe. For three years his army had dev- 
astated her country, and it must be remem- 
bered, too, that far back in the blood of her 
ancestors was the natural antipathy to an al- 
liance with France. Imagine the stormy inter- 
views that must have taken place when Eieux, 
Dunois, Commines, and others argued with this 
resolute woman upon this subject. 

Finally her governess brought her powers of 
persuasion to bear upon the captive, for captive 
she was to an unyielding situation. With a 
woman's skill Francoise called in the most pow- 
erful advocate, the Church, to labor with her 
mistress. Anne's confessor, through his ear- 
nestness, was able at last to persuade her that 
it was "the will of God" that she should "save 
the duchy" by the sacrifice of herself. Then 
and then only did she yield. But there was 
nothing ignoble in her defeat, for of deep re- 
ligious feelings and loyalty to duty we have 
no more striking illustration in the annals of 
history. 



THE DUCHESS OF BRITTANY 65 

To save the royal pair from excommunica- 
tion a special dispensation was ordered to con- 
firm the union, and when the Pope gave his sanc- 
tion he exacted from them a fund for the mar- 
riage of poor maidens. 

Of Anne 's surrender and humiliation, if there 
were any such feeling in her heart, Charles took 
no advantage. With true French courtesy and 
consideration, he managed his part in the deli- 
cate affair. A pilgrimage to the chapel of 
Notre-Dame brought him near the duchess ; an 
interview was naturally obtained, and the suc- 
cess of it was announced a few days later by 
the betrothal of the two in the cathedral at 
Eennes. 

MARGUERITE OF AUSTRIA 

Charles, at the age of twelve, and Marguerite, 
the little three-year-old daughter of Maximilian, 
solemnized the ceremony of betrothal with great 
pomp in the cathedral at Amboise, July, 1483. 
The dauphin, clad in a robe of white damask 
lined with black velvet, espoused the little prin- 
cess, also in white, by the giving of a ring and 
joining of hands. Mass was said and the little 
king thanked those present for receiving Mar- 



66 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

guerite. After the death of Louis XI she was 
considered queen and treated with the honors 
due her rank. She was sometimes called "the 
little mistletoe queen," as her emblem was the 
mistletoe. When the Pope gave his dispensa- 
tion for the marriage of Charles and Anne, and 
Marguerite was returned to her father with her 
dowry, Anne symbolized this event by taking 
the mistletoe and adding to it a caterpillar de- 
vouring the leaves, thus representing the rela- 
tion of herself to the defrauded princess. This 
emblem often appears in Anne's Book of 
Hours. But the queen, by gifts of jewels, 
money, and an embroidered cap, kindly remem- 
bered Marguerite as she set out on her journey 
accompanied by the French lords who had had 
the care of the maid during her twelve years in 
France, and who had become strongly attached 
to her. She was outwardly calm, but she must 
have carried hard feelings in her heart for 
those who had usurped her place. It is grati- 
fying, however, to know that there was no last- 
ing estrangement between Marguerite and Anne 
de Bretagne, for in after years there were 
many exchanges of courtesies between the two. 
Marguerite's life was eventful and full of 



THE DUCHESS OF BRITTANY 67 

sorrow and responsibility. April 10, 1497, she 
married Prince John, son of Ferdinand and Isa- 
bella, the hope of Spain, but he lived only six 
months after the marriage. Four years later 
she became the wife of Philibert, duke of Savoy, 
who died after three happy years of married 
life. At his death she retired from public life 
and in his memory built the beautiful chapel at 
Brou which has been called "an architectural 
jewel. ' ' There she lived in a palace, making a 
collection of art treasures, tapestries, books, 
and pictures. On the death of her brother, 
however, she was obliged to come out of her re- 
tirement and assume the guardianship of his 
family of five children, one of whom was after- 
wards the great emperor, Charles. From that 
time until her death, November 30, 1530, she 
was at the head of the committee of the regency 
of the Netherlands. 



CHAPTEE V 
MAEEIAGE OF ANNE TO CHAELES VIII 

Aftbe a short ride from Tours along the 
peaceful river Loire, where groups of fishermen 
were going to their morning catch, a great stone 
fortress came suddenly into view, rising from 
the flaggings of a busy town. The drawbridge, 
which in most castles is useless, was, in this 
case, swung across the moat, and men, women, 
and children were filing in. This was the cha- 
teau of Langeais, 1 the best example in France 
of a fortress of mediaeval days, and the chateau 
where, on December 16, 1491, the marriage of 
the Duchess Anne with the king of France took 
place. 

The rooms connected with the story of Anne 
are the salon des fleurs and " Anne of Brittany's 
room," the former so named because it has a 

i The chateau of Langeais was purchased by Jacques Siegfried 
in 1890, restored in the most beautiful style, and presented 
to the Institute of France with an endowment fund that will 
make it a perpetual museum of the Middle Ages. 

68 




Chateau of Langeais. 

Here Charles VIII and Anne of Brittany were married, 

December 16, 1491. 



MARRIAGE OF ANNE 69 

frieze of beautiful flowers copied from Anne's 
Book of Hours. "Anne of Brittany's room,'' 
the one in which Anne's marriage to Charles 
VIII occurred, is the grand salon. Seven large 
tapestries out of the lives of nine heroes, Gothic 
choir-stalls, rich rugs, and chairs are reminders 
of the past, while tables with books and maga- 
zines, a modern piano, and evidences of home 
comforts suggest a living-room of the present 
time. 

From the third floor of the castle we passed 
outside on to "The Bounds,' ' a stone walk 
fourteen feet long, where we saw the large 
openings called machicolations, down which the 
besieged in feudal times dropped stones, boil- 
ing oil, or molten lead upon the attacking sol- 
diers. 

The general impression of the chateau was 
one of gloom, of massive furnishings, and of 
dark hangings, not tempting to a long sojourn 
or to a permanent possession. Can any one 
live in these old fortress-castles and be cheer- 
ful? Were the dwellers of former days ever 
• merry in such surroundings'? 

Why was this chateau chosen for the royal 
marriage? It seemed remote, situated as it is 



70 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

on the opposite bank of the Loire from Am- 
boise, where the bridal couple were to live. 
Probably that is the very reason it was chosen. 
Anne's suitors were so numerous, and there 
were so many ways in which they might make 
trouble, that the marriage was solemnized here, 
in a quiet, almost secret manner, instead of in 
any cathedral. 

With the state and luxury befitting a duchess, 
bringing with her an elaborate trousseau, costly 
furnishings, and a retinue of servitors, Anne 
arrived at the chateau of Langeais in her own 
carriage, which was rich with trappings of 
black and crimson velvet. Her traveling dress 
was of black satin and velvet over which she 
wore a cloak of black velvet trimmed with one 
hundred and thirty-nine skins of sable. As 
beds were not in common use, she had with her, 
for her journey, two beds, one very rich with 
hangings of crimson cloth embroidered with 
gold. For her underwear linen had been im- 
ported from Holland. To her attendants she 
had given costumes of velvet, that of her gov- 
erness was of violet velvet, while her maids of 
honor had robes of tan-colored velvet or satin. 

Directly after her arrival at the chateau of 



MARRIAGE OF ANNE 71 

Langeais, the signing of the marriage contract, 
of which there were two drafts, one in French 
and the other in Breton, took place in the pres- 
ence of many notables 1 from both courts. 
This contract was as follows: 

1. If Anne were to die before Charles and 
their children, she ceded to him and his suc- 
cessors all her rights to the duchy. 

2. If Charles were to die before Anne and 
their children, Anne retained all the rights to 
the duchy. 

3. Anne, in case of widowhood, was not to 
marry any one except a king of France or the 
heir presumptive to the French crown. 

4. All jewels and furniture of the duchess 
were to remain hers after the king's death. 

5. The queen, if she survived her husband, 
should have the same settlement as he would 
have. 

Plainly these terms were favorable to the 
king and hard upon the duchess, for he had 

i On the side of France, Louis, duke of Orleans ; Peter, duke 
of Bourbon; Charles, count cf Angouleme; Guy de Rochefort, 
chancellor of France. On the side of Brittany, John of Chalons, 
prince of Orange; Philip of Montauban, chancellor of Brit- 
tany; the Sire de Coetquen, the Sire of GuemenSe, and lords 
of the house of Rohan. 



72 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

gained not only the most desirable wife in 
France but also bad added the richest province 
in Europe to his kingdom, while she, on her 
side, gained an amiable husband and a seat 
upon his throne, but yielded the control of her 
own duchy to him and his successors. This 
marriage is most noteworthy from the fact that 
"it brought under royal authority the last 
refuge of princely independence. The province 
which had the longest and most obstinately 
maintained its individuality, became fused like 
the rest into one great whole, the kingdom of 
France.' ' 

The contract signed, the bridal pair passed 
into the grand salon where the archbishop 
d'Alby conducted the ceremony. In all the 
pages of history is there a more interesting 
pair, a king of twenty-one as the bridegroom 
and a duchess of fifteen as the bride 1 

The bridegroom in long robes, to make him 
look as stately as possible, could not be called 
handsome, for he had neither a good figure nor 
a comely countenance; nevertheless he was a 
true cavalier, with a romantic nature and an 
amiable disposition that gave his face a kindly 
expression and made up to his friends for his 



MARRIAGE OF ANNE 73 

physical defects. His speech was slow and 
hesitating, and his education had been neg- 
lected because his father, Louis XI, wished him 
trained only in dissimulation, and would have 
kept books from him altogether had it not been 
for his beautiful mother, Charlotte of Savoy, 
who taught him herself. 

"The little king," as he was lovingly called, 
was generous, sweet, and gracious, and in Paris 
he was praised as a "right lusty gallant at play- 
ing tennis, hunting, and jousting." 

The bride, in a dress which cost more than 
twenty-five thousand dollars, could not have 
been more charming. She wore an under robe 
of Holland linen and an outer robe embroidered 
in gold relief, trimmed with one hundred and 
sixty sable-skins and loosely held by a girdle of 
twisted gold. From the embossed designs the 
cloth received the name drap-d'or4rait-enleve, 
an ell (forty-seven inches) of this cost one thou- 
sand four hundred and seventy dollars and 
eight ells were used for the sown. The collar 
of the robe was of gold and precious stones and 
was finished with lace. Around Anne's neck 
was a rosary, and on her head was a hood of 
satin ; her bearing was majestic, and not marred 



74 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

by a slight lameness caused by one leg being 
shorter than the other. Her face was strik- 
ingly fair, with a bright color in her cheeks, her 
forehead high and broad, eyes and hair dark, 
and features shapely. Proud as a duchess, she 
was also modest, as became a maid. Already 
she had good judgment, a generous and truth- 
ful nature, and absolute devotion to her coun- 
try and to her God. St. Gelais de Montluc, who 
was present at the marriage, wrote of her: 
"She was beautiful, young, and full of graces, 
so that it was a pleasure to look upon her." 

On leaving the chateau of Langeais, Anne and 
her husband went first to Tours and then to 
Paris. On the way several cities gave the new 
queen magnificent receptions, and a medal 
which still exists was struck with the name and 
head of Charles on one side and Anne's name 
and arms on the other. 

Joy in France was universal, for the advan- 
tages of this union were very apparent, but in 
the other countries of Europe the alliance 
caused astonishment and resentment. The 
court of Austria expressed its indignation 
against France in a Latin dissertation. Eumor 
quickly spread a report that the duchess had 





Medal of Charles VIII and Anne. 



MARRIAGE OF ANNE 75 

been abducted, but this Anne denied before an 
ecclestiastical commission, declaring that she 
had gone of her own free will to Langeais to 
marry Charles. 

The house of Medici exclaimed, "What a 
power France now is!" Immediately Henry 
VII of England, Maxmilian of Austria, and 
Ferdinand II of Spain united their efforts to 
diminish this power, but in vain. Maximilian 
was hurt most, for not only did he lose his wife 
and a duchy, but his daughter lost her hus- 
band and a kingdom. 

An old chronicler states that three circum- 
stances connected with this marriage were very 
astonishing, — the fact that Charles was already 
betrothed, that the duchess was marrying the 
inveterate enemy of her house, and that Lord 
Dunois, who had been the chief instrument in 
bringing about the marriage, died of apoplexy 
while on horseback going to the nuptials. The 
superstition of the people made them believe 
it to be a direct judgment from Heaven, and 
the same interpretation was later made to ac- 
count for the death of all the male children born 
to Anne. 

February 8, 1492, the queen-duchess, as she 



76 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

called herself, was crowned at St. Denis. Beau- 
tiful, young, and full of life, with her hair 
plaited and hanging over her shoulders, she 
looked like a young girl, but when seated upon 
a dais in robes of white satin, she was every 
inch a queen. As the crown was too large and 
too heavy to be worn, Louis held it over her 
head while the benediction was pronounced. 
The duchess of Bourbon and several countesses 
stood by her side, wearing the coronets that be- 
longed to their rank. 

The next day after the coronation the 
duchess-queen made her solemn entry into 
Paris. Members of Parliament and of the 
other court, and the people of city and country 
came out in their best array to see her, and 
so dense a crowd was formed that the streets 
were packed from the church to the palace. 

The Parisian residence of Anne and of 
Charles VIII was the Hotel des Tournelles, so 
called from the innumerable towers with which 
it was adorned, — "a forest of spires,' ' says Vic- 
tor Hugo in his ' ' Notre Dame. " " Nor was any 
assemblage of objects in the world — not even 
at Chambord nor at the Alhambra — more mag- 



MARRIAGE OF ANNE 77 

ical, more aerial, more captivating, than the 
grove of spires, turrets, chimneys, weather- 
cocks, spiral staircases, airy lanterns, pa- 
vilions, spindle-shaped turrets, or tournelles, 
as they were then called, — all different in form, 
height, and position.' ' 

This palatial structure, no longer standing, 
was near the Place de la Bastille in the midst of 
a park, in which was the famous labyrinth of 
Louis XI, and, rising above it, the tower of his 
astrologer on the spot now occupied by the 
Palais Royal. There Louis XII, Anne's second 
husband, died, and here her son-in-law, Francis 
I, resided until the location became unsanitary 
and the palace far too small for his great court. 
Anne, like Louis XIV, never cared for Paris 
but always longed for the free air of Brittany 
and for the chateau on the hill at Dinan. 
Charles himself favored the castle of Amboise, 
also on a height, although he had lived a lonely 
childhood in the old fortress. 

By her beauty, her judgment, and her firm- 
ness of character Anne impressed the French 
people and gained the respect as well as the 
love of the imperious king who had been 



78 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

brought up as a sovereign from his infancy. 
Superb, haughty, a ruler in her own right and 
superior to the king in education and training, 
she took her place beside him not only as his 
queen but as the queen of France. 






CHAPTEE VI 
ANNE, QUEEN OF CHARLES VIII 

As neither the king nor queen cared to live 
in Paris, Charles spared no pains to make Am- 
boise worthy of so young and beautiful a bride. 
Soon after his marriage he began to enlarge the 
chateau, — practically to construct a new palace, 
which is the one now seen by visitors. The 
beautiful chapel dedicated to St. Hubert, in 
which the marble was carved "like lace" by 
sculptors from Italy, was the chapel where 
Charles always went to pray before going to 
the chase. The furnishings of the royal apart- 
ments were of the richest materials in silk and 
cloth of gold. In the rooms belonging to the 
king his favorite colors, red and yellow, were 
used; hangings of scarlet velvet were embroi- 
dered with the initials A and K * in gold sur- 
mounted by a crown. 

Among articles especially provided for Anne 

iA for Anne; K for Karolus, i.e., Charles. 
79 



80 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

were two sideboards, and an oak bench and 
table five feet long for her dining-room; two 
jewel-boxes, one for herself and one for the 
princess of Tarento; a table for the queen's 
doctors, and wooden beds for her maids of 
honor. One item concerning the latter is in- 
teresting: " There were two beds six feet long 
and six feet wide," showing that single beds 
had not yet come into fashion. 

Anne 's silver numbered about sixty pieces,-— 
plates, spoons, porringers, and cups marked 
with A and K and the fleur-de-lis; her linen 
pieces, of which there were seven or eight hun- 
dred dozen, were marked with three fleur-de-lis 
in yellow thread. 

In the galleries of the chateau there was a col- 
lection of historical arms and armor. Some of 
the weapons dated back several centuries and 
had belonged to the most celebrated kings or 
the most famous warriors of France, such as 
the hatchet of Clovis, the sword of Dagobert, 
the dagger of Charlemagne, two hatchets of St. 
Louis, the sword of Philip the Handsome, that 
of King John, two swords of Charles VII, four 
swords and a dagger of Louis XI, the 
two swords Charles carried in the battle of For- 



QUEEN OF CHARLES VIII 81 

nova, a hatchet with three diamonds said to be 
that of Du Guesclin, and the armor that Joan 
of Arc wore at the coronation of Charles VII. 
The young King Charles and his wife soon 
came to love each other and to look forward to 
a brilliant future together. During the first 
years after their marriage they were not parted 
but dwelt sometimes at Plessis-les-Tours, 1 
sometimes at Amboise, both of which had been 
enlarged and adorned. If affairs of state 
obliged the king to make a journey, his wife 
accompanied him or joined him at some city 
where he tarried. Whenever she could, she 
went by water, which she preferred to journey- 
ing by land. Traveling in those days was 
hazardous and difficult and required much 
preparation. The king, the great lords, and 
the ladies went on horseback or in litters, fol- 
lowed by servants and a file of carts, horses, 
and mules. As they could not reach a hos- 
telry every night, they carried tents for sleep- 
ing in the open, and tapestry, furniture, and 
domestic utensils, in case they were quartered 
in an empty or partly furnished chateau. So 

i In Scott's "Quentin Durward" is a good description of 
Plessis-les-Tours when it was the residence of Louis XI. 



82 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

Anne carried her own wooden bed, sheepskins 
containing cooking utensils, bread for herself, 
and water and wine in hermetically sealed flag- 
ons. Her bread and wine were renowned, and 
these she provided even when she was sure to re- 
ceive hospitality, for she did not wish to cause 
too much trouble, and, besides, had to take the 
usual precautions customary to sovereigns of 
that time. The first care of Anne in Brittany 
after her marriage with Charles VIII was to re- 
new the furnishings of the chateau of Nantes. 
For this purpose she had tapestries and pictures 
brought from the Levant, besides numerous 
shipments of cloth, jewels, and precious vases 
for her house and chapel. 

Eleven months after her marriage, October 
10, 1492, two days before Columbus * landed in 
America, Anne gave birth to a son at the cha- 
teau of Plessis, a cause of great rejoicing both 
in France and Brittany. Abundant provision 
had been made in furniture, linen, and articles 
of all kinds, including vessels of gold and silver 

iOn the magnificent bronze doors, designed by Rogers, in 
the capitol at Washington, illustrating the life of Columbus, 
in the panel border of sovereigns is a representation of 
Charles VIII of France. With him are Alexander VI, Ferdi- 
nand and Isabella, John II of Portugal, and Henry VII of Eng- 
land. 



QUEEN OF CHARLES VIII 83 

fashioned by a skilful goldsmith. The young 
mother, only sixteen years old, received the 
most tender care, and the father, proud and 
happy, wrote to the court to announce the birth. 
On the thirteenth, with the customary display 
and solemnity, the baptism of the dauphin took 
place. The dukes of Bourbon and of Orleans, 
clad in cloth of gold, were his godfathers and 
the queen of Sicily his godmother. The duke 
of Nemours carried the candle; the count of 
Foix, the salt dish of gold; the duke of Ven- 
dome, the ewer; the prince of Spain, the basin 
and the napkin; Madame PAmirale, the holy 
ointment in a vase set with stones of great 
value ; and the prince of Orange, the new-born 
babe. Behind the queen of Sicily marched the 
duchesses of Bourbon and of Orleans, and they 
were followed by lords and ladies of the court, 
archers of the guard, and officers of the house 
to the number of five hundred carrying torches. 
A member of the society called Cordeliers, 
afterward canonized under the name of Fran- 
Qois de Paule, placed the holy water upon the 
head of the young prince and christened him 
Charles Orlando. 
This first-born, whose father was twenty-two 



84 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

and whose mother was sixteen, became the ob- 
ject of most solicitous attention and was placed 
under the special protection of the Virgin. He 
was always dressed in white and covered with 
cloth-of-silver. One of his first gifts was a lit- 
tle silver whistle, fashioned by order of his 
mother when he was only a few months old. 
At the age of three he was a fine little fellow, 
"handsome, precocious, bold in speech, and not 
alarmed at those things wherewith children are 
usually frightened. ' ' 

A letter written at this time brings us close 
to the parental relations and care for this son. 

Moulins, September 3, 1495. 
To the Governor of the Dauphin, 

By the Queen. 

Our friends and servitors: 

We have this day received your letters and 
learned of the good health of our son, about 
which we were very glad ; also we have learned 
of the wise counsel that you and the doctors 
have taken for the health and government of 
our son, and we have so informed His Majesty, 
causing a messenger to post to him for that pur- 
pose. Write frequently and give us news of 
him, for no greater pleasure can you do us. 

Written at Moulins this Thursday, the third 
day of September. 

Anne. 



QUEEN OF CHARLES VIII 85 

Before they had been married three years 
the events of war came into the life of Anne de 
Bretagne. For Charles, steeped in chivalry 
and longing to win his spurs, determined upon 
an invasion of Italy. He rested his claim to 
the duchy of Milan in northern Italy on the 
marriage, in 1387, of Valentine Visconti to 
Louis of Orleans, vassal and kinsman of the 
royal house ; while his claims in southern Italy 
to the kingdom of Naples were based on the 
fact that Bene, the last of the male line of the 
house of Anjou ruling in Naples, had be- 
queathed his claims to the father of Charles, 
Louis XI of France. Louis did not push these 
claims, but Charles VIII did. In this he was 
aided by Ludovico of Milan, an enemy of 
Naples, who invited Charles to come into Italy. 
Such an expedition Anne, with the good sense 
of which she was constantly giving proof, op- 
posed, and she was sustained by the king's sis- 
ter and by the wise men about him; but their 
advice was of no avail, for he was completely 
swayed by the thought of becoming a great con- 
queror like the heroes of romance. 

In spite of his love and admiration for the 
queen, he never allowed her to interfere in his 



86 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

administration of public affairs. Although she 
was superior to him in charm of body and keen- 
ness of mind, she could not dominate him, and 
even in Brittany all acts bore his name ; but that 
he intended always to deal justly with her na- 
tive land has never been doubted. In 1492 he 
made a special ordinance for Brittany which 
comprehended six articles: 

1. The Parliament of Brittany could appeal 
to the Parliament of Paris as a higher court. 

2. Taxes in Brittany should be levied as by 
the ancient dukes. 

3. Bretons should be tried, in the first in- 
stance, only by the judges of their own country. 

4. The Breton marshals should have juris- 
diction over matters of war only. 

5. Public money should be used for the main- 
tenance of the villages of Brittany. 

6. The expenses of the courts in Brittany 
should be furnished by the usual receivers, on 
presentation of receipts. 

When the king went to Lyons to prepare for 
the Italian expedition, the queen accompanied 
him and they left the boy at Amboise. Before 
starting out the parents took pains to write out 
the following instructions not only for the 



QUEEN OF CHARLES VIII 87 

safety of his person but also for the preserva- 
tion of his health: A hundred men of the 
Scotch guard must watch constantly before the 
gate of the town and chateau; a chamberlain 
must always stand at the entrance of the don- 
jon tower. If a stranger came to take lodgings 
in the village, his landlord must inform the cap- 
tain of the Scotch Archers. Whenever the 
venerable Frangois de Paule visited his lord- 
ship, he could be accompanied only by one 
priest, a man born in France who had never 
visited Naples, as Naples was supposed to be 
a hotbed of conspiracy. If any contagious 
malady necessitated the removal of the boy 
from Amboise, he was to be conveyed to one of 
the strongest chateaux in Touraine. If taken 
out only for an airing, he must be attended by 
a large number of trusty archers. Hunting in 
the vicinity was strictly forbidden. News was 
to be sent the king as often as possible, and if 
reinforcements were needed, the nobles and 
free archers of Touraine and of Berry must be 
in readiness. 

In the first days of the year 1494 the king 
and the duchess-queen, followed by a large and 
brilliant court, made a solemn entry into Lyons. 



88 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

Six pages in crimson velvet led the queen's di- 
vision. Behind them pranced three pairs of 
horses, proudly drawing the chariot in which 
the dainty queen so stately sat. Anne was 
dressed in cloth of gold with a short train 
trimmed with ermine and fastened with dia- 
mond buttons. Her girdle of gold cord, the 
Cordeliere, 1 and her Breton silk cap were orna- 
mented with precious stones. A long mantle 
of red velvet lined with ermine fell from her 
shoulders to the earth. The chariot itself was 
covered with crimson velvet trimmed with er- 
mine, and a gold A embroidered upon it, thus 
displaying the favorite colors, red and yellow, 
of the king and the insignia of Anne's loved 
Brittany. 

Following her, in a similar equipage, came 
her maids of honor, and behind them the mule 
which she usually rode, saddled with crimson 
satin and with trappings of white and gold. 
Last of all there was borne along by mules the 
bed of state, held in place by cords of gold. 

While Charles was preparing at Lyons for 

i Twisted cords, a symbol used by St. Francis and several 
religious orders. Anne adopted it for herself and for the 
order of women that she founded. 




Charles VIII. 



QUEEN OF CHARLES VIII 89 

the Italian expedition, entertainments, under 
the leadership of Louis of Orleans, were nu- 
merous, and several tournaments in which the 
king jousted were held. Of his seven selected 
horses, one named Quintain had been given to 
him by Anne herself. With the same ceremony 
entry was made into other places, notably 
Grenoble and Moulins, the capital of Bourbon- 
nais, where Anne gave a prisoner his liberty. 
At Grenoble August 23, 1494, there was great 
magnificence. The principal streets were hung 
with historical tapestries in honor of the king 
and queen, and the festivities lasted six days, 
during which the final preparations for cross- 
ing the Alps were made and chosen ambassa- 
dors were sent forward to prepare the way. 

August 29, 1494, Charles attended mass, and 
then, after taking an affectionate leave of Anne 
of Brittany, mounted his horse and set out for 
Italy. Anne must have been pleased to see in 
the very forefront of the army as it marched 
away, commanded by Louis, prince of the blood, 
many of her countrymen, — her cousin Gie, 
Eohan, Eieux, and several Breton cavaliers who 
were to do valiant deeds in the war. Among 
the troops were six thousand Breton archers, 



90 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

and, at the king's request, Brittany had fur- 
nished two large vessels to carry the ammuni- 
tion of the expedition. But as it was the first 
time the king had left her, Anne's heart was 
troubled by sorrow in parting from her dear 
husband and by fears for his safety. Believ- 
ing him to be one of the greatest kings in the 
world, she felt that he would rush into danger 
and was departing upon a most adventurous 
expedition. In her zeal as a Breton and a 
Christian she had resort to prayers and alms. 
To the principal churches of Brittany, Paris, 
and Lyons she made valuable gifts for prayers 
and masses; to the royal abbey of St. Denis 
two candles weighing twenty pounds each, to 
burn before the shrine of the patron saint; to 
the convent of Notre Dame des Anges at Lyons 
a large clock; to the brotherhood Minimes, 
established by Francois de Paule at Tours, a 
goodly sum of money. She did not spare 
herself, but attended mass every day, asking 
God to protect the king and his army. Her 
gifts, more abundant than ever, were not de- 
nied to any who asked her aid. Always gener- 
ous, she increased her almsgiving, especially to 
wounded soldiers. 



QUEEN OF CHARLES VIII 91 

During the fifteen months that the expedition 
lasted, the queen-duchess remained either at 
Lyons, or Moulins with her sister-in-law. Anne 
de Beaujeu, in obedience to the request of the 
king, who wished her as near him as possible, 
that she might carry out his orders. Although 
only eighteen years old, our Duchess Anne was 
really regent of France in the king's absence 
and served to the satisfaction of all, especially 
in Brittany, where she executed some important 
laws. In the exercise of royal power and in 
the midst of this life of strain and stress there 
is a touch of tenderness in Anne's thought of 
home and family, for it is in 1495 that she gives 
to Michel Colomb, the Breton sculptor, the or- 
der to execute her father's tomb, a work that 
made him celebrated. 

It is known that she wrote Charles every day, 
and that on receipt of his letters, she sent 
couriers upon his business in every direction, 
abundant proof of the king's confidence in her 
executive ability. This activity, so natural to 
Anne, was a great help to her in the excitement 
under which she lived in these months of the 
king's absence, with its alternations of triumph 
and anxiety. 



92 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

In the beginning of the campaign the reports 
of the king's marvelous victories, as one Italian 
city after another opened its gates without re- 
sistance, and the accounts of the exploits of the 
Bretons, filled her heart with pride. Nothing 
could have been more gratifying to her than the 
stand taken by Savonarola, the great preacher ; 
for the holy man affirmed "that the king was 
sent by God to chastise the tyranny of the Ital- 
ian princes, and that none would be able to op- 
pose him. ,, He likewise foretold that the king 
would enter Pisa, and that the state of Florence 
would be dissolved on that day. "And so it 
came to pass," says Commines, "for Peter de 
Medici was driven out that very day." To the 
anxious inquiry of Commines, when the tide of 
success turned to disaster, Savonarola an- 
swered "that the king would meet with some 
difficulties on his return to his own dominions, 
but that he would overcome them and gain im- 
mortal honor." On the other hand, the tri- 
umphal entry of Charles into Rome was dis- 
counted for Anne by the fact that the Pope, re- 
garding Charles as an enemy, retired on his 
approach to the castle of St. Angelo and dele- 
gated his reception to the cardinals. 



QUEEN OF CHARLES VIII 93 

The joys of triumph, as the queen found to 
her sorrow, were of short duration. A year 
had scarcely passed since the king left France 
when reports came that the army was greatly 
diminished by sickness, the nobles were given 
over to gay living, and that the Italian princes 
who had been allies at first had turned against 
the king. But the waning fortunes were 
ameliorated by accounts of the great bravery 
of Charles, who, mounted on a beautiful horse, 
was always in the thick of the fray. Three 
months later Charles returned to France, and, 
although his object had not been accomplished 
and the expedition was, on the whole, useless 
and disastrous, he had nevertheless covered 
himself with glory in which the Bretons shared. 

Before he reached home disappointment and 
sorrow of the deepest kind came to the royal 
pair. At Turin a letter brought information 
of smallpox at Amboise and asked for instruc- 
tions. The king ordered several doctors to be 
summoned, to learn if the dauphin were in 
danger. After consultation they hastened to 
reply "that there had been smallpox at Am- 
boise, but that it was at an end ; that they had 
taken care that the people of the village should 



94 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

not communicate with the castle, but they would 
advise a change of residence." Anne, a little 
reassured, sent a courier to the king, and let- 
ters of thanks to the governess of the dauphin 
for the good care she was giving the boy. 
These had scarcely gone, however, when news 
of the most alarming kind was received, and on 
December 6, 1496, at the beginning of his fourth 
year, the little dauphin died of the dread dis- 
ease. Because of the failure of the doctors to 
save his life Anne's faith in them, never very 
great, was completely shattered. 

In each of the three years that followed the 
death of the dauphin, Anne brought a child into 
the world, but only for its burial. The first, a 
son, Charles, born September 8, 1496, died on 
the third of October in the same year. An- 
other son, Francis, born in 1497, died a few 
days after birth, and a daughter, Anne, born in 
1498, shared the same fate. In vain did the 
poor mother try to save the lives of these frail 
infants. She summoned from her own country 
the best nurses, and, mindful of the Breton sup- 
erstitions, gave them a box filled with amulets, 
beads of chalcedony and jasper, a bit of copper 
from Guiana, a bit of black wax in a gold purse, 



QUEEN OF CHARLES VIII 95 

and the tongues of six serpents. But the fa- 
tality which followed the queen could not be 
conjured away. The heartless Commines en- 
couraged the belief generally circulated that in 
this way she was punished for what some called 
"the illegality of her marriage.' ' 

The king and queen sorrowed deeply over the 
loss of their promising boy, and the health of 
the king was so affected that the doctors recom- 
mended the princes to invent pastimes and 
games to try to divert his mind. The mother, 
although broken-hearted, felt that she must as- 
sist at these fetes. While taking part in them 
Louis danced so gayly that the queen imagined 
that he was rejoicing over the removal of the 
one who had stood in his way to the throne, 
and her displeasure was so keen that Louis 
withdrew temporarily from the court and went 
to Blois. 

The bodies of Anne's children, whose lives 
were so short, were placed together in the same 
tomb at Tours. The reason Tours was se- 
lected for this honor is made clear by the choice 
of many tourists who find this city a convenient 
center from which to visit the chateaux of 
Touraine. The sorrowing mother wished to be 



96 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

near the resting-place of her children. As it 
proved, her choice was wise, for most of her 
life was spent in the valley of the Loire. 

On our way to the Hotel VUnivers one late 
afternoon we stopped our machine before the 
cathedral and visited this memorial of one of 
the sad chapters of the life that so interested 
us. The tomb of white marble, decorated with 
beautiful sculptures remarkable for their fine- 
ness, was the work of John I of the school at 
Tours. The figures of two young children upon 
the top of the monument are as lovely as beauty 
and innocence can be pictured in a sleep of 
peace. In the life of the Duchess Anne the 
thread of bereavement is never broken. Loss 
succeeded loss only as a prelude to a heavy 
blow that, after seven years as duchess-queen, 
deprived her not only of her husband but of the 
throne of France where she was so proud and 
happy to be seated. 

On his return from Italy the king's taste for 
foreign invasion seemed gone, and in the year 
1497 the life of the king and queen became quiet 
enough for her to work again in her own coun- 
try and promote the fruits of peace. Then, 



QUEEN OF CHARLES VIII 97 

following her natural bent, she busied herself 
with art, letters, and history, and ordered that 
the archives of Brittany be opened to Pierre le 
Baud, that he might write the history of the 
duchy. But in the beginning of the next year 
the king commenced to think again of conquest, 
actuated by letters from Savonarola, who urged 
him to "reform the church by the sword and to 
expel the Italian tyrants," adding that "dis- 
obedience would call down upon the king the 
wrath of God." But before entering upon this 
enterprise Charles, made more serious by ex- 
perience and the loss of his children, turned his 
attention to the needs of his people and planned 
to lessen taxes and institute reforms in church 
and state. Following the example of the illus- 
trious St. Louis, he instituted a public audience 
where every one, especially the poor, could bring 
a grievance. 

One of his favorite sayings was, ' ' The sword 
and lance are weapons of offense, the breast- 
plate and shield weapons of defense; learning 
is both offensive and defensive.'' As a proof 
of his love of art and letters he gave France 
books, marbles, and fine pictures, and estab- 



98 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

lished in the kingdom wise men, artisans, and 
skilful workers in the beautiful products of 
Italy. 

In this noble work of the king Anne greatly 
rejoiced, but more gratifying than this was his 
repentance for his past follies and his resolve 
to be henceforth absolutely faithful to her. 
Often wounded by his flirtations, so contrary to 
her own ideals of purity, she showed great 
strength of character by bearing her burden 
in silence, and while her enemies called her 
jealous she was but suffering from a wounded 
heart. Now at this time her trials seemed to 
be over, and unless she were troubled by the 
symptoms of apoplexy the doctors already saw 
in Charles, her heart must have been full of 
hope for a long and glorious reign. But the 
next scene in her life is one of the deepest 
tragedy. 

On a pleasant afternoon, the day before Palm 
Sunday, April 7, 1498, Anne was pleased that 
Charles dropped for a time the cares of state 
and his plans with Italian painters and archi- 
tects, to give her an invitation to witness his 
favorite game of tennis. Hand in hand they 
made their way, choosing unfortunately a sel- 



QUEEN OF CHARLES VIII 99 

dom-used gallery, 1 unclean and strewn with 
debris, traversed often by workmen and serv- 
ants but seldom if ever before by the king. As 
they entered the passage Anne saw the king 
hit his head against the lintel of the low door- 
way, but to her anxious inquiry he replied that 
he was not hurt and they went on to speak to 
the players and to watch the game. After 
greeting his courtiers his conversation took a 
religious tone, the reflection of the preparations 
he had been making for Holy Week, and just 
as he had uttered the words "By the grace of 
God, I hope never again to commit mortal or 
venial sin" he suddenly fell, never to rise. 

For nine hours, from two o'clock until eleven, 
he lay there upon a pallet which was hastily 
brought. All this time his confessor, the bishop 
of Angers, never left his side, but the agony of 
the queen so alarmed the doctors that they in- 
sisted upon her return to the chateau. The 
bishop reported that the only words the king 
uttered in his few brief moments of conscious- 
ness were, "Mon Dieu et la glorieuse Vierge 
Marie, Monseigneur Saint Claude et Monseig- 

i This gallery was called Hacquelebac, from one of its an- 
cient guardians. 



100 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

neur Saint Blaise me soient en aideV 9 x So 
passed away a monarch of whom it has been 
said "though not one of the wisest, he was one 
of the most amiable and beloved that ever sat 
upon the throne." 2 Commines, who is his 
harshest critic, wrote of him, "He was so good 
that better creature could not be seen." 

Sincere and general mourning showed how 
deeply the king was loved, and upon the mem- 
bers of his household the blow fell heavily. 
One of his archers and one of his butlers, suc- 
cumbing to their emotion, dropped unconscious 
at the moment when the body was placed in the 
tomb. The duke of Orleans, on receiving the 
messenger who brought the news, scarcely 
heeded the announcement of his own accession 
to the throne, but burst into tears and praised 
the king in warmest terms. 

The grief of the duchess was so great that, 
for a time, her attendants feared for her life. 
For two days she lay on the floor of her room 

i "My God and the blessed Virgin Mary, St. Claude, St, 
Blaise, help me!" 

2 A remarkable coincidence is that on this same day, as 
if the destiny of the one had been allied with that of the other, 
the prophet Savonarola met his downfall and a month later 
was burned to death. 



QUEEN OF CHARLES VIII 101 

wringing her hands in despair. Lord Bou- 
chage wrote to his wife, ' ' The queen continues to 
mourn all day and no one can comfort her." 

Sharing the anxiety of the court, Louis XII 
sent for Cardinal Briconnet, whom the king 
loved, and Bishop Condon, who had influence 
over the mind of the duchess. They found her 
in the same garments she had worn on the day 
of the disaster, sobbing in a corner of the room 
and obstinately refusing any nourishment, re- 
solved "to take the way of her husband." 
Their sympathy and eloquent words finally 
calmed her mind and brought the color back to 
her cheeks. Though her grief still continued, 
her mental power was so great that she found 
strength to write to the queen of Sicily and to 
sign a document to reestablish the chancellery 
of Brittany, which Charles had suppressed. 
To the funeral arrangements she gave her per- 
sonal thought and begged Louis to see that they 
were carried out with unusual magnificence. 
This he did faithfully, and, moreover, even de- 
frayed the expenses from his own personal 
fortune. She declared her intention of wear- 
ing a dark color * as mourning, instead of white, 

i This dark color was probably purple. 



102 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

which had hitherto been worn by the widowed 
queens of France. 

The twenty-first of April following, she sent 
to Louis two of her faithful servants to regulate 
the expenses of her mourning and that of her 
household, expenses that amounted to twenty 
thousand livres. The duchess distributed to the 
princes of her family and to the lords and 
barons of Brittany a large quantity of black 
cloth in silk and linen. 

Such was the first part of the political life 
of this queen who, without playing the principal 
role, was able, while still very young, to main- 
tain the dignity of her high birth and rank. 
She had shown herself a duchess and a queen, 
wearing with pride for seven years her double 
diadem and impressing her will upon the king- 
dom. Now the time had come for her to go 
back to her own dear country, Brittany. That 
it was for a brief reign only, her own utterance 
seemed to foretell, when she said to those who 
pitied her, "I have enough confidence in my 
star to believe that I shall become a second time 
queen of Prance.' ' 



CHAPTEE VII 

ANNE A SECOND TIME DUCHESS OF 
BRITTANY, 1498-1499 

Although no longer queen, Anne was more 
truly than ever a duchess, in undisputed con- 
trol of her inherited domains. After seven 
years on the throne of France, at the age of 
twenty-one, rich in experience, saddened by 
the loss of parents, children, husband, and 
crown, she still had her dear native land, which 
she was thoroughly capable of ruling and which 
held for her now, as always, a cordial and loyal 
welcome. 

Immediately upon the death of the king she 
undertook again the full administration of her 
realm, as in the days before her marriage, and 
this she continued the rest of her life, for her 
second husband, Louis XII, never curtailed or 
even shared her power. 

But before the duchess could return to Brit- 
tany, she must pass through a season of mourn- 

103 



104 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

ing. According to letters patent still in exist- 
ence, bearing her own signature and that of her 
secretary, Anne entrusted Victor Gaudin, her 
silversmith, with the task of seeing that proper 
mourning be provided, and to pay for this ex- 
penditure she took some money from taxes 
levied upon the two cities, Falaise and Quercy. 
For six weeks she had to remain in a darkened 
room, illuminated only by wax tapers, but, as 
visitors were not excluded, she attended even 
there to affairs of state. Only two days after 
the death of the king, Anne promulgated an 
ordinance at the chateau of Nantes, reestablish- 
ing Philip of Montauban as chancellor and mak- 
ing the prince of Orange lieutenant-governor. 
The latter was the first to be summoned to come 
to her, and when he was known to be on his 
way, one of her pages was ordered to meet him. 
A record of her household expenses has one 
item which reads, "To Philippe de Chantenay, 
page of the aforesaid lady, ten solz of Tours, 
for having ridden post the length of the river 
Loire, even as far as Blois, on the tenth day 
of the said month of April in order to meet M. 
the Prince of Orange to make him hasten to 



A SECOND TIME DUCHESS 105 

come before the said lady, which sum has been 
paid to him." 

At the end of ten days she was able to ad- 
dress her own people in a dignified personal 
note: 

Amboise, April 17, 1498. 
Our friends and loyal subjects : 

You have already learned of the recent death 
of monseigneur, the king, my husband, may God 
absolve him, concerning whom we have so 
mourned and lamented that it was not possible 
for us to write you sooner; but we intend to 
send you some of our close and loyal envoys to 
declare to you our intention that you may be 
favorably treated with justice and peace. 

We ask you to see to it that everything is 
done as it should be, and that you act as our 
good and loyal subjects, so you will have, as 
do our other subjects, our help and protection. 
May God be with you. 

Written at Amboise on the 17th day of 
April. 

Anne. 

Upon the back is written, "To our friends 
and loyal supporters, the people of the chapter 
of the cathedral of Lantreguyer. ' ' 

Since the laws of France required the widows 
of kings to remain a certain time in Paris, Anne 
sent swift couriers from Amboise to summon 



106 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

prelates, barons, nobles, and citizens to be ready 
to attend her to the capital. 

Before leaving Amboise, where she remained 
quietly until the middle of May, she had a sol- 
emn service chanted for the dead king. Then, 
escorted by the officials who had already been 
summoned, she went to Paris and occupied a 
large house known as the Hotel d'Etampes, on 
what is now the quai des Celestins. This was 
a part of Anne 's inheritance from the king and 
was quickly remodeled for her, as it had been 
for many a widowed queen before. In a biting 
wind one Sunday afternoon we found our way 
to the place, but saw no reminders of our 
duchess or even of any past grandeur. To-day 
an ordinary modern building stands upon the 
spot where she passed a few months of her 
mourning. 

Day after day she wrote letters and sent 
messages by pages or swift horsemen to rela- 
tives, friends, and the officers of Brittany, for 
help or sympathy. One of the first orders was 
to the master of the mint at Nantes, for coin, 
both gold and silver, stamped with her own or 
her father's likeness. To the nobles of Brit- 
tany she wrote, asking their allegiance and giv- 



A SECOND TIME DUCHESS 107 

ing de Bohan, de Rieux, d Avaugour, and others 
command of the most important cities. An old 
writer says, ' ' She seemed to be devoured by ac- 
tivity." 

On her arrival in Paris, surrounded by the 
lords of her duchy, she received in state King 
Louis, and after this they met often as friends, 
as lovers, and as sovereigns upon whom de- 
pended the welfare of a nation. 

In the middle of the summer, full of a new 
hope and responsibility, she departed for her 
duchy in a manner befitting a sovereign prin- 
cess, her escort a hundred archers sent by her 
secretary of war in response to her written or- 
ders. For those days, she traveled rapidly, and 
on the sixteenth met the king at Etampes. 
There on the nineteenth the marriage contract 
was drawn up. In this the duchess consented 
to marry the king as soon as he should be free 
from Jeanne, 1 his wife, and the king promised 
to restore Nantes and Fougeres, which he was 
holding as a pledge, if through death or other 
cause he should not marry the duchess within 

i In September, 1498, a dispensation was granted by the 
Pope for the marriage of Louis XII with Anne of Brittany. 
On December 17, 1498, a decree of the dissolution of the 
marriage of Louis and Jeanne was pronounced. 



108 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

a year. In every way the king showed courtesy 
and a desire to please the duchess. Carrying 
out the conditions that had been imposed upon 
him, he withdrew his army from her domains, 
ordered his captains and archers to give place 
to Bretons, and when, at St. Malo and Brest, 
they delayed obedience, he reprimanded them 
for their tardiness. That all had been done 
to her satisfaction is shown by the following 
letter from the duchess to the king: 

to monsieur my good bbotheb, cousin, and ally. 

The Very Christian King. 
Monsieur my good brother: 

I have received by M. de la Pommeraye your 
letters, and by their message have learned of 
the singular benevolence that you bear me, by 
which I am greatly consoled, and I thank you, 
with my whole heart, praying you always to 
continue thus. That you will, is the strong 
hope of her who is and always will be 

Your good sister, cousin, and ally, 

Anne. 

The day after the marriage-contract was 
signed, she wrote to her native land announc- 
ing her coming. 

Etampes, August 20, 1498. 
Our friends and loyal supporters : 

We shall presently journey on to our country, 
the duchy of Brittany; in order to know and 




M "14 H?* 



A SECOND TIME DUCHESS 109 

hear all about affairs in our country, and in 
order to communicate and declare to you our 
desires, we have advised the assembly of our 
states upon our arrival in our city of Eennes, 
on the fifteenth day of this coming Septem- 
ber, on which day we intend to be there in order 
to have your good advice upon what will be de- 
liberated, for which we desire that you shall be 
present. Thus we beg, and even command, that 
on the said day and in the said place you shall 
send two or three of the influential people from 
among you, in order to be there, ceasing from 
every other occupation, and see to it that this is 
done without fail. 
Written at Etampes the 20th day of August. 

Anne. 

Upon the back is written, "To our friends 
and loyal subjects, the people of the chapter of 
the church of Treguier." 

Then Anne journeyed to Chartres, and to- 
ward the end of August she reached Laval, 
where she rested for a time with her cousin, the 
queen- widow of Sicily (godmother of the poor 
little dauphin), a princess for whom Anne had 
a strong affection. While there she corre- 
sponded with the king of France and the lords 
of Brittany. In her household accounts there 
is an interesting record of purchases she made, 
during the summer, of jewels, furniture, and 



110 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

notable tapestries, which later adorned her new 
home in Blois. 

August seems to have been her busiest month. 
One of the most interesting details to which 
she attended was an order to Pierre Signac, 
controller of her money, for an inventory of 
tapestries, armorial bearings, furniture, and 
standards, as well as the special articles of fur- 
niture and other things she had when her first 
child was born. One reason for this inventory 
was to aid her in making selections for her new 
home, as seen by notes written against some 
items as tapestries "to be carried from Brit- 
tany. ' * 

The next month an inventory was made of 
her personal belongings, such as jewel-boxes, 
cabinets, furs, materials for robes, headdresses 
and wraps, lingerie and linen, gold work, dia- 
monds, and vessels of gold and silver; also arti- 
cles consecrated to religion, as reliquaries, pic- 
tures in gold and silver relief, pictures on brass 
and ivory, paintings, books in manuscript, and 
printed books. The exquisite art in their exe- 
cution doubled the value. The most skillful 
workmen of France and Italy were employed 
unceasingly by her, either in making new ob- 



A SECOND TIME DUCHESS 111 

jects or adorning those she already possessed. 
After the birth of the dauphin she had Arnould 
de Viviers, jeweler of the duchess of Bourbon, 
fashion for her golden vessels. Later Henri, 
jeweler to the king, added eight pieces. At her 
different entries into Nantes, Paris, and Lyons 
other golden vessels were presented to her. 
She took the greatest care of them, and never 
failed to have her arms put on them by the 
clever artists attached to her house. 

It was not until October that she went to 
Nantes and Rennes as the acknowledged ruler 
of the duchy. At Rennes she assembled the 
States General and impressed all by her dignity, 
keenness, and executive ability. With her usual 
forethought, this meeting had been carefully ar- 
ranged long beforehand by letters to the clergy, 
barons, and citizens of Rennes, St. Malo, St. 
Brieuc, and Treguier, who assisted in the con- 
vocation. By numberless acts of kindness, and 
by alms to the poor and gifts to the churches, 
the young duchess prepossessed the States in 
her favor. 

When she came back to Nantes a magnificent 
reception awaited her. Under a dai's of black 
velvet, preceded by large crosses, by silken ban- 



112 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

ners embroidered in fleurs-de-lis, and by satin 
standards of black, white, and violet; and fol- 
lowed by trumpeters from the city, wearing 
black hats, with their instruments adorned with 
mourning, she made her entry and went directly 
to the cathedral, where the bishop, in the name 
of Brittany, gave her condolence. 

Back once more in her own country, as its ac- 
knowledged ruler, and the recipient of honors 
and esteem from her people, there seemed noth- 
ing now to interfere with her happiness; but 
sorrow was not entirely absent, for in the death 
of Frangoise de Dinan she met with a distinct 
loss. 

It is interesting to read of her careful atten- 
tion to domestic affairs, — how she established 
her household on a new basis, increasing the 
number and wages of those who composed it. 
From this time also dates the appointment of a 
guard of a hundred Bretons to protect her per- 
son and to accompany her on her journeys. 
She was the first queen to have a guard of her 
own, and when she became queen of France the 
second time, these Bretons went with her, never 
more to leave her court; and afterwards, at 
Blois, they were stationed on one of the ter- 



A SECOND TIME DUCHESS 113 

races, which received the name, "the perch of 
the Bretons.' ' On seeing them she would al- 
ways give a sigh of satisfaction and say, 
" There are my Bretons on their perch, waiting 
for me." 

As there was at this time no history of Brit- 
tany that was satisfactory to her, she had 
planned, after the death of her first husband, 
to have one written, and now she found an en- 
thusiast in Peter Lebaud, her treasurer and 
counselor, who had already begun an historical 
work several years before. He not only con- 
sulted the ancient chronicles, but, by order of 
the duchess, had access to the documents pre- 
served in the churches, monasteries, and munici- 
palities of Brittany. Lebaud transcribed his 
work on vellum, added beautiful miniatures, and 
offered it to his mistress. It was a manuscript 
of three hundred and fifty-seven pages written 
in two columns, with gilt edges and ornamental 
letters. The title reads as follows : "Here be- 
gins the book of kings, dukes, and princes of 
Armorican Brittany, with a prologue prefixed: 
To the very high, very powerful, and very ex- 
cellent princess, my very sovereign lady, 
Madame Anne, by the grace of God queen of 



114 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

France, and, by the same grace, duchess of 
Brittany; Pierre Lebaud, treasurer of the col- 
legiate church of Magdalaine a Vitre and your 
humble and very obedient subject, servant, ora- 
tor, and almoner, with honor and reverence and 
due subjection and obedience." 

Sometime in this same year the duchess 
founded the sisterhood of the Cordelieres, and 
built for them a magnificent convent at Lyons, 
but no trace of it remains to-day, nor of the 
order itself. Their emblem, the twisted rope, 
was in token of the cords with which our Lord 
was scourged the night of His Passion. Anne 
herself used the emblem in every possible way. 
She wore a girdle of twisted gold about her 
waist and had her maids of honor do the same. 
She used it constantly in decoration, on her 
furniture, in her books, on her linen, on walls 
and ceilings. In the chateaux where she lived 
it is now seen sometimes mingled with the er- 
mine. The most beautiful and effective ex- 
ample is that on her marble mantle over the 
fireplace of her room at Blois, the room where 
she lived and died. 

Although the period of her activities was so 
short, they reached in every direction. First, 



A SECOND TIME DUCHESS 115 

there was her administrative work as duchess ; 
then her attention to her personal affairs, — 
setting of her household in order and arranging 
her second marriage ; third, a literary effort in 
an important field, the history of Brittany ; and, 
not least in her estimation, the founding of a 
religious order. Fortunately her labors for her 
own country neither stopped nor lessened, for 
when she mounted the throne the second time, 
she was still as truly the duchess of Brittany 
as she was queen of France. 



CHAPTEB Vm 

ANNE OF BEITTANY AND LOUIS XII— 
1499-1514 

With the new king, Louis XII, who became 
Anne's second husband, in fulfillment of her 
first marriage-contract, our quest of the 
Duchess Anne has made us well acquainted. At 
Nantes we were introduced to him in the 
chateau where, at her father's court, he was 
charmed with the youthful duchess. When 
Anne was hardly eight years old, Louis said of 
her, "She is called the Lady Anne, so beautiful 
and well informed that she is pleasing in every 
sense of the word. " At Langeais, in the grand 
salon, we were reminded that he was the prin- 
cipal witness at the wedding of Charles and 
Anne. At Amboise, recalling the scenes of old 
court-life, we remembered that Louis lived 
there, was the dear friend of Charles, knew the 
beautiful Marguerite, witnessed their nuptials 
when she was only three and Charles eight years 
old, and often figured prominently in friendly 
and close relations with both the king and 

116 



ANNE AND LOUIS XII 117 

duchess-queen. It was Louis, prince of the 
blood, who had charge of court festivities, and 
who led the king's army into Italy. Hence we 
see that the lives of Anne and Louis were 
closely related, and that now at last they were 
to enter into the bond of marriage. During her 
days of mourning he was one of her first and 
most frequent visitors, and for the good of 
France and for the happiness of these two his 
visits could terminate in only one way. As she 
was pledged to marry the new king or the 
nearest heir 1 to the throne, a union between 
these two was inevitable, although it called for 
the divorce of Louis XII and Jeanne of France, 
who had been married in 1476. 

Our Louis, who, as Louis XII was now king 
of France and second husband of the duchess, 
was the third duke of Orleans, and was born at 
the chateau of Blois, June, 1462, after his 
father, Charles of Orleans, returned from 
twenty-five years' imprisonment in England. 
The sponsors at his baptism were Louis XI and 
Marguerite of Anjou, queen of England, then 
at the court of France. The grandfather of 

i Francis, count of Angoul§me, afterward Francis I, who 
was then only three years old. 



118 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

Louis was a brilliant knight, his father a grace- 
ful poet, and his uncle a brave captain. Such 
was his father's character that he merited the 
name of "the good duke Charles," given him 
by his cousin Louis XI. His mother, Marie of 
Cleves, was his father 's third wife, and was left 
a widow with three children, — Louis, then two 
and one-half years old, and two infant daugh- 
ters, Marie and Anne. The mother, a woman 
of intelligence and heart, was as well educated 
as her husband and ably directed their educa- 
tion. 

Before he was seven years old Louis could 
read, and he early showed a fondness for his- 
tory. As he grew up he was tall, agile, and 
strong, and at seventeen was accomplished in 
the exercises and graces of knighthood, ex- 
celling in leaping, wrestling, shooting, tennis, 
and horsemanship. Interesting anecdotes are 
told of how he tamed and rode wild horses. 

In spite of his long nose, which descended 
over his mouth, he had an expression of sweet- 
ness and charm, his eyes were brilliant, and he 
was elegant and gracious and of good presence. 
Although he had led an extravagant life in his 
youth, he had been well trained by war, exile, 



ANNE AND LOUIS XII 119 

and imprisonment in the school of adversity, 
and now he forsook his old haunts and com- 
panions, forgave his ancient enemies, applied 
himself diligently to the administration of pub- 
lic affairs, and secured the gratitude, obedience, 
and attachment of his subjects. His mother 
taught her son to be forgiving, and when he 
came to the throne he forgot the injuries of 
those who had opposed him. When urged to 
disgrace the French general, La Tremoille, who 
had defeated him, Louis replied, "The king of 
France must not remember the injuries of the 
duke of Orleans," and thereupon confirmed the 
brave La Tremoille in his command of the army. 
Although the device of Louis was the porcu- 
pine with the motto, eminus et comminus, "near 
and far," Louis made his quills felt, but not to 
the injury of any one. This device of the por- 
cupine with quills outspread gave him the name, 
Knight of the Flying Quills. 

JEANNE OF FKANCE — 1465-1505 

Jeanne of France was the deformed and un- 
loved daughter of Louis XL The marriage of 
Louis and Jeanne had been made under the 
compulsion of Jeanne's father, who had threat- 



120 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

ened to put Louis, then a boy of fourteen, into 
a sack and throw him into the water if he re- 
fused. 

After this marriage, although Jeanne loved 
him devotedly, Duke Louis kept away from his 
wife as much as possible, only visiting her five 
or six times a year at the order of the king, 
and he claimed, with justice, that she was not 
and never had been his wife. But she never 
failed in her devotion to him. During the three 
years that Louis was in prison after his defeat 
at St. Aubin, Jeanne was working for his re- 
lease, and it was largely through her efforts 
that it was secured. Such a marriage as theirs 
was easily set aside, and with due form a dis- 
pensation was granted by Caesar Borgia; but 
the people said of those who had given the de- 
cree, " Behold Caiphas, Herod, Pilate, who have 
judged against the noble dame so that she is 
no more queen of France.' ' Frior Maillard 
blamed the king exceedingly, and at the threat 
that "he might be thrown into the river for 
his speeches " he said, "I would as soon go to 
heaven by water as by land, ' ' and continued to 
preach that Jeanne was the true queen. 
Jeanne had always said "she was not worthy 



ANNE AND LOUIS XII 121 

to be the mate of so great and noble a king," 
but she begged permission to take leave of her 
husband and showed her humility and forgiv- 
ing spirit by saying to him, "I trust that you 
will be happier with another than you have 
been with me, and I entreat your pardon for 
having caused you so much uneasiness." 

Whereupon the virtuous Jeanne, devout and 
humble, although plain and deformed, retired 
to Bourges and founded the order of the An- 
nonciade. Jeanne was made duchess of Berri 
by Louis, and had wealth, but she devoted her 
life and money to helping the poor and sick. 
Her virtues and misfortunes attracted to her- 
self universal sympathy, and many stories are 
told of her holy life. 

After this, Jeanne was always looked upon 
as a saint, and, while she was dying, her nuns 
saw a golden light hovering over the place and 
illuminating the chamber in which she passed 
away. At her death she was found to have on 
a garment of haircloth, an iron chain with 
points about her waist, and a cross with silver 
points near her heart. 

Miracles were performed at her tomb, and 
for many years her birthday was observed by 



122 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

religious services. Two centuries after her 
death a fete was given to show the reverence 
in which her memory was held. One preacher 
said of her in a commemoration address, "She 
was so plain that she was repudiated by her 
husband ; she was so beautiful that she became 
the bride of Jesus Christ." One of her say- 
ings was : "God never changes, why should I? 
He is mine and I will strive to be His." 

Ten days after his divorce Louis XII made 
haste to ask for the hand of Anne de Bretagne, 
and on August 12 a contract drawn up between 
them changed the old relation of friendly love, 
born long ago in Brittany, to the new tie of 
betrothal, and in the ninth month of her widow- 
hood Anne married the king. Thus a second 
time the lovely duchess came to ascend the 
throne of France amid universal rejoicing. 

The marriage of Louis and Anne was con- 
summated January 8, 1499, in the chateau * of 
Nantes where Anne was born. Louis made his 
entry with royal splendor, under a blue dais 
with four embroidered escutcheons, two with 

iBy mistake it is sometimes said that they were married 
"in the chapel," from the expression which occurs in the 
French, dans la chapelle. But this referred to the garments 
worn by the priest in the ceremony. 



ANNE AND LOUIS XII 123 

the arms of France and two with the arms of 
Brittany. The king was thirty-six and the 
duchess nearly twenty-three, not the rosy- 
cheeked bride of Charles VIII, but, though pale, 
she was still beautiful, and in her dress of blue- 
and-gold damask she appeared a fit mate for any 
king. 

Concerning the marriage ceremony there re- 
main no documents, but we know that the bene- 
diction was given by the Cardinal de Rouen. 
Tradition says that La Chanson d'une Mariee, 
which is shown on the following pages, was 
sung, and that an illuminated antiphonary was 
executed by order of the bridal pair for pre- 
sentation on this occasion. The ceremony was 
followed by splendid entertainments, by joust- 
ings, and by a great feast which lasted until 
midnight. 

It is interesting to know that of the folio 
antiphonary there still exists, in fine condition, 
at least one whole vellum leaf, and cuttings of 
beautiful large initials, with border, from four 
other pages. The single leaf, which is twenty 
by twenty-six and a half inches, is decorated on 
both sides, and has music notes on a staff of 
four lines, with Latin words for chanting. 



124 



ANNE OF BRITTANY 



I 



CHANSON DE LA MAKIEE 

(HAUTE BRETAGNE ET VENDEE) 

Paris, Editions Maurice 
Senart et Cie 
20 rue du Dragon 

. Calme et lent. mf 



Kitournelle et harmonisation 
de Maurice Duhamel 



SB 



W 



W 2 ^ 



-«— =*- 



J'en - tends dans le bo - 



t£ 



. F^-f 



£S=£ 



ca - ge — Le ros -si-gnol jo - li — Qui 



fes 



s 



£ 



N — IV 






S— j= 



i^-r 



*=* 



dit en sonlan-ga - ge:~ Les 6-pouxsontu -nis! 



i 



fc&=£ 



:&: 



s 



-!«-•- 



P 



4-V-l^J 



^ ^ «««»| ^- 

Des-cends de ton arbre 6 - le - \6, Eos - si 



m 



m 



\ | 



5 



£ 



ESi 



- f » » 1 



at£ 



■v — <J-^ 



gnol qui sou - pi - res, — C'est i - ci qu'est la 



i 



**=f* 



S 



fc* 



«3t 



atg=* 



# 



ma - ri - ee,Mon-tre lui ton doux sou-ri - re. 



[The abovesong is one of a series published under the title of 
Le Chant Populaire. Anthologie du Folklore de Tons les Pays Publiee 
sous la Direction artistique de Gustave Charpentier.] 



ANNE AND LOUIS XII 



125 



i^ 



£=t 



3* 



-!>—*■ 



Le ros 



- gnol sau - va 



i 



^ 



£ 



g^£ 



■A — fV 



4 4 4 



-4-^-4- 



En-tend cet air char - mant — Et dans son doux Ian- 



i 



fe* 



5 



» ' f g =*■ 



=£T=£ 



ga - ge- 



Com - po - se une chan - son: — 



I 



ite 



^ 



gff^ 



$=* 



S^ 



P 



«-^ 



II n'y 



pas de jour si beau Que le 



£ 



%5=t 



B 



-•— f— • — •- 



£3££ 



W 



jour du ma - ri - a 



ge 



II n'y a pas de 



tsm 



1 '^ 1 — -^ 



I N > N I * 



P»-+ 



?=*=*=* 



jour si beau Que le jour du ma-ri - a - ge. 



-h m A d \ I 4-d--m ' P • — i 



s 



£=£ 



3t=M=4 






-m—*- 



m 



±2l 



■4—4- 



XJ 



VousPen-ten-dez,ma-da - me, — Au mi - lieu des plai - 



ffef 



S 



^ 



N | ^-_ 



fc£ 



De ce jour plein de char-mes — 



i 



& 



£=£ 



g^£ 



ji. d "1 



S=U 



Depend vo - tre ave-nir — Si le cha-grinet 



126 



ANNE OF BRITTANY 



4^tJLl^- t 



S 



en - nuis Vous tour-ment - ent dans le 



i 



n ^ s 



S 



s 



p ■ » 



§=P 



mon - de, Vous au - rez pour vous un a 



i 



SEB 



^m i J^j-FPB 



&s 



*-* 



mi Vous souf -f ri-rez moins en - sem - ble. 

This illumination is so elaborate it must have 
been the first page of the folio. On one side 
are two D's about three by three and a half 
inches, in rich, deep blue on a gold ground, with 
two elegant floral borders in opposite corners 
in gold and colors. The crowned initials L and 
A appear in both borders, and in the lower one 
are the arms of Louis XII the first and fourth 
quarterings, of France; the second and third, 
the visconty of Milan. The other side of the 
leaf has a distinctive feature in a grotesque 
head combined with an initial B done in gold, 
with pen-work on a blue ground. 

This is so different in workmanship and col- 
oring from the exquisite borders, that the care- 
ful observer sees two distinct artists. The gro- 




Leaf from a Folio Antiphonary executed in 1499 for the 
Wedding of Louis XII and Anne of Brittany. 



ANNE AND LOUIS XII 127 

tesque head and the notation were never painted 
by the same hand that did the flowers. The 
latter were put on with a finer brush, and the 
coloring was less skillfully done, particularly 
in the use of blue and gold. Although the ar- 
tists cannot be certainly known, it is easy to 
conjecture. The grotesque head is so much like 
the work in the illuminated vellum books by 
Antoine Verard, 1 royal publisher and printer, 
that it was doubtless executed by him or by 
one of the artists employed by him; while the 
finer portion — the exquisite color and work- 
manship of the flower border, with the birds and 
insects — so closely resembles the decorations in 
Anne's Book of Hours that it seems likely 
they were painted by the same hand, that of 
Poyet. 

The terms of the marriage-contract drawn up 
the day previous, were much more favorable to 
the duchess and to Brittany than any that had 
gone before, for this bridegroom was not like 
Charles VIII, the conqueror of the bride, but 
a king desiring to wed a duchess, a friend woo- 

i Antoine Verard published and had books especially orna- 
mented for Charles VIII and Louis XII of France, as well 
as for Henry VII of England. 



128 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

ing the daughter of an old ally. So it was easy 
for Anne and her councilors to stipulate, as 
they did, that she should have the exclusive gov- 
ernment of her duchy and the entire use of its 
revenue. Besides, she had the dowry Charles 
had given her for life, and one double that 
amount that Louis added. As to succession, 
it was arranged that the duchy was to pass to 
the second male son, — the first would inherit 
France, — and, in default of males, to daughters 
in the order of their birth. In case there were 
no children, the inheritance was to go to the 
king during his life-time and then return to the 
nearest claimants in Brittany. Neither in this 
contract nor in his own desires did Louis ever 
interfere with Anne's rights in Brittany. The 
articles of this treaty showed clearly that the 
duchess was to govern as the ancient dukes had 
done. 

The queen-duchess took advantage of this 
event to order her treasurer to distribute to 
various hospitals in her native land a quantity 
of useful supplies, and to make gifts to 
churches, such as vestments and a communion 
service. 

Louis was so well pleased with the fair prov- 



ANNE AND LOUIS XII 129 

ince which Anne brought him as a dowry that, 
after the wedding, he lingered the greater part 
of the winter in Brittany, taking so much pleas- 
ure in the chase that he made it fashionable 
for the nobles. In the spring they journeyed 
slowly to their chosen home, the chateau of 
Blois, the birthplace of Louis, greeted on the 
way by receptions and fetes. At Amboise a 
dais of red damask was erected for the king 
and one of white for the queen. Among the 
elaborate decorations rose two columns spout- 
ing wine, one bearing a porcupine, the emblem 
of Louis, and the other the ermine of Anne. 
Here, where Anne of Brittany had reigned with 
Charles, Louis XII had the delicate forethought 
to keep in the background, allowing the queen 
to occupy the royal seat alone, that his pres- 
ence might not remind her of the sad past. 

At Blois there were no such shadows, and 
there Louis cordially welcomed his queen to 
their new life together upon the throne of 
France. 



CHAPTER IX 
A VISIT TO BLOIS 

Not making the mistake of some tourists in 
visiting Amboise and Blois the same day, we 
chose for our headquarters Tours, the royal 
city of Queen Anne, and gave a day to each of 
her regal homes. At the chateau of Blois the 
wing added by Louis XII, of red brick with 
stone trimmings, is one of the most beautiful 
architectural monuments in France. From the 
moment we entered the courtyard the eques- 
trian statue of Louis XII, under the arch dec- 
orated with designs of the porcupine, greeted 
us and took us back to the days of the Duchess 
Anne. The story of these two so dominated 
the place that we bestowed only a passing 
glance at the wonderful spiral staircase of 
Francis I, and passed at once to the left, 
through the apartments of King Louis and 
Queen Anne. 

Beginning at the guard-room, with its great 

130 



A VISIT TO BLOIS 131 

marble fireplace, we visited the rooms on two 
floors, many of them decorated with the er- 
mine and fleur-de-lis. The room that most in- 
terested us was Anne of Brittany's bed-cham- 
ber where she died. It has a fireplace of pure 
white marble on which is the delicately carved 
cordeliere and the monogram L. A. The walls 
are covered with the fleur-de-lis and the ermine- 
tip, all in white. The figure known in heraldry 
as the ermine, or the ermine-tail, was the an- 
cient device of the house of Brittany. It was 
originally represented in black upon a white 
ground, to indicate the black-tipped tail upon 
the white body of the ermine. Undoubtedly it 
symbolized purity, as the motto of the counts 
of Brittany reads, " Death, rather than a 
stain." In honor of the Breton queen these 
ermine-tails were for many years mingled with 
the lilies of France in royal heraldry, and both 
the ermine and the cordeliere are emblazoned 
upon many of the chateaux of Touraine. 

These empty rooms could easily be refur- 
nished almost exactly as they were three hun- 
dred years ago, for the queen's inventories and 
accounts, although destroyed in part, give us 
the essential items. Turkish rugs covered the 



132 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

floors, and the walls were hung with tapestries, 
mainly Flemish, some of which told the Story 
of the Ages, the Story of King Ahasuerus and 
Queen Esther in six pieces, the history of the 
Nine Knights in nine pieces, and the Eomance 
of the Eose, all of which were brought from 
Nantes. There were four large historical 
pieces of joustings, and one, very old, tapestry 
embroidered with the arms of Brittany. 

There was also a unique set of hangings for 
the walls and the canopied bed, called "the 
tapestry of Milan,' ' done in crimson satin, with 
occasional embroidery, and in each piece there 
were five lions made of pearls; each lion, 
crowned with a chaplet in which were different 
kinds of fruit, held in his paw a shield upon 
which were two seals. One set of hangings 
was made in Lyons, and many of those in the 
chambers and oratories of the king and queen 
had a cordeliere in silk and gold, showing how 
this symbol was ever present in Anne's mind. 

In little Claude's room there was a hint of 
Anne's modern thought in a touch of kinder- 
garten principles, for it was hung with tapes- 
tries of farmyard scenes and figures of fairies 
and gnomes out of the realm of childhood. The 



A VISIT TO BLOIS 133 

great room to which the archduke was assigned 
when he came to be betrothed to Claude, had 
tapestries depicting the Trojan War. These 
tapestries peopled the rooms with persons of 
all times, countries, and ranks. 

For furniture there were elegant and richly 
carved pieces, few in number for the present 
day, as little furniture was in use at that time, 
especially chairs, two being considered a lux- 
ury. 

Anne had two large chairs covered with vel- 
vet in her chamber, one for herself and one for 
her husband. Those who came to see the 
queen usually stood, unless it was an impor- 
tant person, when the page brought a bench; 
if it were a woman and a princess, she sat on 
a cushion ; if a simple mademoiselle or one from 
the middle class, she knelt before the duchess. 
Ordinarily Anne's bed was covered with red 
velvet and cloth of gold ; for childbirth she had 
a second bed, called lit de misere, made with 
less expensive materials, as, for example, yel- 
low and red damask worked in black and yel- 
low with her device, the twisted cords. There 
was a huge dresser on which were placed the 
objects necessary in illness. Vessels of gold 



134 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

were made for it, and a basin for the holy wa- 
ter, set with seven diamonds, seven rabies, and 
ten great pearls, stood at the head of the bed. 

From the illuminations in her books we can 
picture Anne back again in her rooms. Le 
Eoux helps us to do this in a description of 
three of these miniatures. 

In the first one Queen Anne is represented 
seated in a chair in her bed-chamber, dressed 
in a black robe which trails on the floor ; a little 
white dog sleeps on the folds of her gown. 
From the coiffure there extends a square 
piece of cloth over her forehead, down to her 
eyes. She is writing a letter to the king, her 
husband, upon a simple table covered with a 
green cloth ; the inkhorn and penknife are orna- 
mented with gold; a book on the table, bound 
with red velvet and having gilt edges and gold 
clasps, is apparently the Book of Hours. In 
the other hand the queen holds a handkerchief 
with which to dry her tears. Close to the table 
the women of her court are seated on the floor, 
all wearing a costume and headdress like 
Anne's. By the side of the queen is her bed, 
covered with gold embroideries, the curtains 
partly red and partly gold. To the curtains 




Duchess Anne's Fireplace, Chateau of Blois. 



A VISIT TO BLOIS 135 

at the head of the bed are fastened the images 
of two saints. Near the bed is a green parrot 
in a cage. At the end of the room is a large 
square chest whose panels are carved. 

In the second illustration the queen is seated 
on a dais, wearing over her dress a coat of red 
velvet lined with cloth of gold, which has large 
sleeves and trails on the ground. She gives 
her letter to a messenger, who holds a red cap 
in his hand and kneels before her. He bears 
on his right shoulder a shield of France. 
Above the letter is written, "To my Lord the 
King." The finger of the queen covers a part 
of the writing. 

An officer of the queen holds a red bonnet 
in his hand and wears a collar of gold and a 
gold cap on his head. The ladies are seated on 
the floor as before. Among them is one of 
royal blood, and from appearances she has no 
more privileges than other women. 

The third miniature represents Anne again 
writing to the king. Here she is in a room 
more vast than the one shown before ; the hang- 
ings are embroidered in twisted cords. Day- 
light penetrates one of the long, high windows 
where can be seen the arms of Louis and of 



136 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

Anne surrounded with a border of fleurs-de-lis 
and crowned A 's. 

The queen, dressed in a robe of gold bro- 
cade, is seated upon a stage surmounted by a 
dais, having before her a little table. She folds 
a letter for which a courier waits with his 
horse before an open door. The ladies of honor 
are engaged in tapestry work. 

We can picture her stepping from such a 
room into her oratory, where she had three little 
gold-enameled pictures of the Virgin and Child, 
a massive vessel, silver-gilt, for the wine of 
the communion, and a silver box engraved with 
a figure of Our Lady of Piety, for the bread that 
was presented to the queen; there were also 
several magnificent shrines, in gold and silver, 
sculptured with great skill. 

At the end of the wing we saw her gallery, 
still hung with pictures, and Le Roux furnishes 
a list which would enable one to restore the 
original contents. We know, too, what her li- 
brary was ; doubtless it was the finest collection 
in that day, for she really had four libraries, 
her father's, Charles VIII's, Louis XIFs, and 
her own. The great value of some of her books 
is proved by the fact that an Ovid made es- 



A VISIT TO BLOIS 137 

pecially for her was sold in the Hoe collection 
in New York in 1912 for fifty-two thousand dol- 
lars. 

Last of all, we visited the chapel on the 
ground floor, simple, unpretentious, but digni- 
fied. Our visit over, the strongest impression 
we carried away was of a home, private and 
regal, where two crowned heads with human 
hearts had lived many years in happiness. 



CHAPTER X 
LOUIS AND ANNE 

In the first year of their marriage the 
shadow of war fell over Anne again. For 
Louis, although ruler now of the fairest and 
broadest territory of any in Europe, cherished 
the same vain Italian projects as his predeces- 
sor. He took up the claims in Naples on the 
ground of inheritance from Charles, and in 
Milan, by inheritance from his grandmother 
Valentine, of the Visconti family, whose rule 
there had been superseded by that of the Sfor- 
zas. Practically all their married life this 
struggle with Italy lasted, for in the summer of 
1499 Louis crossed the Alps, and peace was 
not signed until after the death of the queen. 

To show the high esteem in which he held 
Anne, and that he shared his victories with her, 
Louis XII placed the arms of Brittany over the 
gate of every Italian city that capitulated to 
him. 

138 




Louis XII. 



LOUIS AND ANNE 139 

Anne had the wisdom to perceive that ex- 
peditions beyond the mountains would not add 
to the prosperity of France, since two peoples 
separated by such natural barriers could not 
easily be one in race, language, and ideals. In 
this opinion she showed herself to be far-see- 
ing, as she was forecasting judgments with 
which the ablest diplomats of to-day would 
agree. Never in sympathy with war, and es- 
pecially opposed to carrying it into Italy, her 
heart was greatly troubled to meet this trial a 
second time. Besides, how would the honest, 
straightforward Louis fare with Italian wiles? 
Her fears were realized when, later in the war, 
Louis was deserted by those who were at first 
his allies, Pope Julius II and Ferdinand of 
Spain. 

Upon the king's departure for Italy, the 
queen, owing to the plague, took refuge with 
Louise of Savoy * at Eomorantin, thirty miles 
south of Blois. As Louise has been called, and 
doubtless was, "Anne's hated rival/ ' it is in- 
teresting to note some instances of friendly re- 
lation, of which this is one. There were two 

i Countess of Angouleme and widow of Charles of An- 
gouleme. 



140 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

reasons why these women could not be in sym- 
pathy. Anne stood for purity of life in the 
home and at court, while Louise was not above 
the corruption of her time. Both were anxious 
to place an heir upon the throne, for, in case 
Anne did not have a son, Francis, 1 the five- 
year-old son of Louise, would inherit the king- 
dom, as indeed it turned out. So Louise must 
have been pleased that the child born to Anne 
on October 15, 1499, was a girl. Preceding and 
following the birth of Claude there were so 
many calamities — the plague, continual rains 
that prevented the ripening of the grapes, and 
the fall of the old bridge of Notre Dame in 
Paris — that the superstitious interpreted them 
as evil omens. 

The little girl was named for St. Claude, who 
was called upon in times of peril or on the 
approach of death. When Louis heard the 
news of the birth of Claude he greatly rejoiced, 
for he said, ' i Since one has a daughter, there is 
great hope of having a son"; and such was his 
eagerness to see Anne and the child that in 
about a month he left Milan and hastened to the 

i Francis I, grandson of the first duke of Orleans, born at 
Coignac, September 12, 1494, died at Rambouillet, 1547. 



LOUIS AND ANNE 141 

queen, who was transported with joy at his 
coming. After the christening of the young 
princess the father and mother took her to 
Blois, and, when she was eight months old, gave 
her into the care of Madame Bouchage, in whom 
the mother had perfect confidence. Although 
not a strong child, Claude did not have any se- 
rious malady, and was greatly beloved by her 
mother, who transferred to her the passionate 
affection given the dauphin, on account of whose 
death Anne had lost all faith in doctors and 
accused them of ignorance and carelessness be- 
cause they had not seen the danger threatening 
her son. 

Even then Anne's anxiety was so great and 
her affection so tender that, when absent from 
the child, letters were constantly kept flying 
back and forth, those of Madame Bouchage re- 
peating, "Your little daughter is well and 
happy, and growing every day," and those of 
Anne asking for news and charging that the 
child should not be intrusted to physicians. 
One of the letters reads as follows : 

Grenoble, June 11, 1507. 
My deab companion : 
I have received your letter and the good news 



142 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

of my little daughter, for whom I was very 
anxious. Keep me constantly informed. See 
that she has nothing to do with doctors and give 
her your own care. 

Anne. 

But her lack of faith in medical men did not 
extend to the church fathers, in whom she de- 
voutly believed, and, following the advice of 
the bishop of Grenoble, she dedicated Claude 
to Francois de Paule, who had recently died. 
When Claude recovered her health, Anne ob- 
tained of the Pope the canonization of de Paule, 
and in her reliance upon the holy fathers she 
became more tranquil and happy. 

Having placed her daughter in safe hands, 
the queen then resumed her active life and ob- 
ligations to church and state. First she went 
to the abbey that held the shrine of St. Claude, 
to pay her vows for the gift of her child, then 
to Burgundy to act as godmother to the son 
of the prince of Orange, honoring the banquets 
and festivals of the occasion by her grace and 
queenly bearing. In May she met her husband 
at Lyons and ordered a tournament in which 
seven of her household were to break lances 
with seven of the king's. 



LOUIS AND ANNE 143 

Surrounded by her maids-of -honor, the queen 
was seated on a stand erected especially for 
her, while the king occupied another with his 
nobles. At the sound of trumpets and drums 
the knights entered the lists with their ladies 
riding behind them, the king's men in white 
cloaks and the queen's in blue. After the ladies 
had dismounted and taken their seats with the 
queen, the jousting began in earnest, and so 
sharp was the contest that the prince of Na- 
varre was thrown from his horse and many of 
the knights were wounded. By her presence at 
such feats of arms Anne showed her interest in 
bravery in the field. 

The stories of Charles and Louis in Italy 
read much alike, in that they both began with 
sweeping victories and both ended in defeat. 
Two great men stand out prominently in these 
accounts; in one, Savonarola, the prophet; in 
the other, Gonsalvo de Cordova, the gran capi- 
tan of Spain. But while the former favored the 
ruling Charles, the great Spanish warrior 
routed Louis' army in one of the most disas- 
trous battles * in the history of France ; 
Charles's story is shorter, for he went only 

i On the banks of the Garigliano, in 1503. 



144 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

once to Italy, while Louis went three times. 
Both had trouble with the popes, but the quarrel 
of Louis was the more serious, and only ended 
at Anne's intervention, just before her death. 

In the end Louis' failure was as complete as 
that of Charles, for in 1513 he had not a single 
possession in Italy, but although his foreign 
policy was not successful, Louis saw to it that 
the wars with Italy did not overtax France. 
He was moderate in personal expenditures and 
left his kingdom rich, to be impoverished later 
by the prodigality of Francis I. When once 
accused of being parsimonious, Louis answered, 
"I would rather see the courtiers laughing at 
my avarice than the people groaning at my ex- 
travagance." 

The only good resulting from the wars in 
Italy was that they brought Italian art and cul- 
ture into France. 

Although Anne greatly desired peace, she 
nobly stood by her husband when the war was 
decided upon, and to the French navy, espe- 
cially, gave most timely help by gifts from her 
own treasury and by enlisting her own country- 
men in service. Although she would have been 
glad to keep Brittany out of the war altogether, 



LOUIS AND ANNE 145 

she wished the Bretons to do their part, and, 
jealous as they were of their privileges and 
proud of their independence, they responded to 
her call, as long as it did not sacrifice their 
rights or their traditions. Accordingly, in 1501, 
she gave out of her private revenue twelve ves- 
sels of war to join the French fleet in the Medi- 
terranean, a squadron that afterward distin- 
guished itself in the expedition against the 
Turks, for when Louis concurred in the general 
attempt of Europe to deliver Constantinople, 
she encouraged him because of her own reli- 
gious feeling, and came to his aid with the re- 
sources her duchy could furnish, soldiers and 
sailors, the bravest and best, also ships and 
money. One of the ships that Anne contrib- 
uted to the French navy was a very large one 
called the Marie-la-Cordeliere, and upon it were 
embarked one hundred cannon and twelve hun- 
dred men, Breton sailors, gunners, and nobles 
of the house of the queen. During a journey 
the queen made into Brittany she had the pleas- 
ure of seeing the beautiful ship twice. 

But seven years later the vessel was de- 
stroyed in a fierce battle near Brest, in which 
twenty Breton ships met eighty of the English 



146 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

fleet. The Cordeliere was attacked by the Re- 
gent and was so hard pressed that her com- 
mander, Herve Portzmoguet, seeing that he 
must choose between surrender and death, cast 
grappling-irons on the Regent and set fire to 
his own ship and that of his enemy, so that 
those on board perished, either in the flames or 
in the sea. 

There is a poem which was printed at Paris 
in 1513 in Latin verse, on the loss of the Cor- 
deliere. The author, Germain Brice, secretary 
of the chancellor of France, dedicated it to 
Queen Anne de Bretagne, who, soon after, at- 
tached him to her service. 

How busy these wedded monarchs must have 
been and how able! It seems almost impossi- 
ble that without locomotives, telegraphs, or 
telephones, they could have accomplished so 
much in so short a time, for in this one year, 
1501, while war was waged abroad, the chateau 
was enlarged at home, a squadron launched, 
wise laws enacted, and, not the least to them or 
the nation, a new baby welcomed at the fire- 
side. 

Anne 's life of thirty-seven years can be called 



LOUIS AND ANNE 147 

short only when measured by time. Its activi- 
ties might have filled the long lives of two or 
three and left no leisure for ennui or idleness. 



CHAPTER XI 
THE INCIDENT OF DE GIE 

The fall of 1503 and the winter of 1504 fur- 
nish a dramatic episode typical of Anne's life, 
"a web of mingled yarn of good and ill to- 
gether." In a few short months defeat, disap- 
pointment, joy, and triumph were closely inter- 
woven. 

Very early in the Italian campaign the phy- 
sical effect of the war upon the king had made 
the queen anxious about his health, for, al- 
though looking robust, he easily became fa- 
tigued. In September, France was nearly over- 
whelmed by the news of a disastrous battle with 
the Spaniards under Gonsalvo de Cordova, 
which obliged Louis to give up Naples and 
sign disadvantageous treaties. 1 Shortly after, 
probably as a result of this blow, the king was 
seized with an alarming illness that called forth 

i Three treaties of Blois : ( 1 ) Purchase of Milan from 
Maximilian; (2) sale of Naples to Ferdinand of Spain and 
betrothal of Claude to the grandson of Maximilian; (3) 
division of Venice with the emperor. 

148 



THE INCIDENT OF DE GIE 149 

the queen's constant and loving care, and so 
alarmed the doctors that they thought he could 
not recover. 

Now we come to that incident in the life of 
Anne of Brittany, called "her persecution of de 
Gie," that has been related by her chroniclers 
to her detriment. But in these accounts the 
whole story has not been told, — only that part 
in which Anne appears. In referring to this 
incident Brantome is severe in his criticisms. 
He says : l ' The queen did not desire the death 
of de Gie, because she wished him to live that 
she might torture him, to live dishonored and 
debased, since his sufferings would be a hun- 
dred times more than death itself, for death 
lasts only a day, really only an hour, whereas 
his changed fortune would make him die every 
day." But Le Eoux considers this very un- 
just, protesting, "The reasoning of Brantome 
is strange and surely imagined, for he gives to 
that princess a hardness of heart that she never 
had." Moreover, she left to Gie life, liberty, 
and fortune, which few other sovereigns in her 
position would have done. It is the historian 
Lavisse who goes deeply into the matter, mak- 
ing the question a political rather than a per- 



150 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

sonal one. Lavisse finds in Cardinal dAm- 
boise the moving power in the downfall of de 
Gie, rather than in the queen, whom he does not 
even mention in this connection. 

During the crisis of her husband's illness, 
and for sometime before, the circumstances 
at court were particularly trying for Anne de 
Bretagne. She felt quite alone and in a posi- 
tion where she must think and act for herself. 
There were two rival parties at strife with each 
other: the party of the queen, composed of a 
few loyal Frenchmen and Breton lords faithful 
to their country; and the party of Louise of 
Savoy, at whose head was Marshal de Gie, of 
the Bohan family, whom Louis had made gov- 
ernor of Francis, heir to the throne, — a wise 
choice, as de Gie, when general of the king's 
army, had devoted much time to literature and 
arts in Italy, and was one of the most distin- 
guished nobles of his day. In the marshal the 
queen found the inveterate enemy of her house, 
for, although a Breton prince, he was in the 
service of France against the independence of 
Brittany. 

Behind these two parties was Cardinal 
dAmboise, already powerful among the clergy 



THE INCIDENT OF DE GIE 151 

and longing for the place de Gie held in state 
affairs. During the cardinal's absence in 
Eome de Gie had become so essential to the 
king that he could not be spared even to go to 
his dying wife, and his position stood in the 
way of the cardinal's ambitions. So when 
there came an occasion for d'Amboise to work 
against de Gie, he was ready to seize it, and 
this occasion he found in the trouble that arose 
between the queen and the marshal. But the 
cardinal himself, who was really the prime 
mover of the whole process, kept in the back- 
ground as much as possible and cleverly man- 
aged the affair so that Anne and others, prin- 
cipally Anne, appeared to be the instigators 
of the unfortunate proceeding. 

When the doctors declared that the death of 
the king was imminent, Marshal de Gie sent 
for Louise of Savoy and began to plan for the 
best interests of the young prince, her son. De 
Gie fortified Amboise, stationed himself where 
he could watch the movements of the queen, and 
placed a guard of ten thousand archers along 
the river Loire, with orders not to allow Claude 
to leave the country, for it was reported that 
Anne was going to take her out of France with 



152 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

the ultimate purpose of making her ruler of 
Brittany. The queen, on her side, knowing the 
difficulties incident upon the death of Louis, 
and that there was no one to take thought for 
her or her interests, began to prepare for her 
own return to Brittany. She gave orders to the 
officers of the house to place her furniture, 
plate, and other valuables upon great boats 
and send them to Nantes. It was at this point 
that the marshal, overstepping the bounds of 
his authority, declared "that while the king was 
alive she had no right to move,'' and stopped 
the boats. But her majesty was in the right, 
for these possessions were her own, by mar- 
riage-contracts, by inheritance from her father, 
or by her own purchase. Naturally, at such an 
interference with her commands and reflection 
upon her conduct, her anger and indignation 
were thoroughly aroused; she determined that 
the marshal should be severely punished, and 
she therefore began to take proceedings against 
him. In this she was supported by d'Amboise, 
because he had desired for some time to sup- 
plant de Gie; by Alain d 'Albert, her rejected 
suitor, because he needed Anne's aid in Na- 
varre, and wanted to win her over to help him ; 



THE INCIDENT OF DE GIE 153 

and, finally, by Louise of Savoy, who, in spite 
of jealousy and the fact that de Gie was acting 
for her own son, took sides with the queen. 

Louise and de Gie were no longer friends; 
some say she had refused his offer of mar- 
riage, others that he was cold to her admira- 
tion. An incident is related of the meeting of 
these two at Amboise, where Louise was over- 
heard to accuse de Gie. The marshal an- 
swered, "If I had served God as I have served 
you, madam, I should not have a great account 
to render Him." That Louise and Alain, who 
were not at all friendly with Anne, should join 
with her, is significant of the greatness of the 
opposition. As a consequence of Gie's high- 
handed conduct he was first banished from 
court, and then arrested and tried for high 
treason. The charges he had to answer were 
innumerable, but few of them were made by 
Anne. It is usually imputed to her that she 
had a most severe sentence pronounced upon 
him, namely, that his goods were to be con- 
fiscated, his children deprived of their birth- 
right, and he himself condemned to decapita- 
tion. Certain it is that she pursued him with 
animosity. It is not a pleasing incident in her 



154 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

history, but her enemies have exaggerated the 
account. Most writers fail to give ground for 
the accusations against him made by others, 
principally Cardinal d'Amboise, and these ac- 
cusations would have been made even if Anne 
had had no grievance. Without any mention 
of Anne's case against Gie, Lavisse states that 
he was first sentenced in the spring of 1504, 
and again in 1506 for lese-majeste, because he 
had circulated letters throughout France re- 
porting that the king could not live much 
longer. 

After unjust proceedings and other trials, 
first in one place and then in another, his sen- 
tence was softened, some say by the interven- 
tion of Louis. In the end de Gie was deprived 
of his captaincy of Amboise and Angers, of 
one hundred lancers, was suspended for five 
years from the office of marshal, was exiled ten 
leagues from the court for the same time, was 
made to pay the salary of fifteen soldiers of 
the royal troops he had employed in his own 
service, and was compelled to restore the money 
he had used on his chateau of Fronsac. The 
fallen favorite returned to Anjou, where he 
built a fine residence and bore his disgrace with 



THE INCIDENT OF DE GIE 155 

dignity. Referring to this affair, he only- 
said, "Very early the rain has fallen." As 
for d'Amboise, he became next in authority to 
the king, but used his power so judiciously that 
he merited the name by which he has been 
called, "The True Pope of France." 

As Anne appeared to be the chief accuser, 
the court condemned her, as the civil party, to 
pay the costs of the trial, and Louis allowed her 
to take it out of her own personal property. 
The whole proceeding became the subject of 
much general comment throughout the king- 
dom. In a play written at this time a pun is 
made upon the name of Anne. One of the 
characters says, "Once upon a time there was 
a marshal who tried to shoe an Ane, but she 
gave him such a blow with her hoof that he 
bounded out of court ever the walls into the 
orchard." This satire was enjoyed in several 
colleges in Paris, but, because of the reference 
to the queen, Louis forbade such farces for the 
future and banished several of the overbold 
students as a warning to the others. He said, 
"I want the players to act in freedom and ex- 
pose the abuses of my court, provided always 
that the honor of the ladies be safeguarded." 



CHAPTER XII 

ANNE'S SECOND CORONATION 

Peobably on account of the war the second 
coronation of the queen and her entry into 
Paris had long been delayed, but, on the king's 
recovery, the gloom of defeat and sickness gave 
place to brilliancy and festivity. Louis issued 
a royal message as follows to the citizens of 
Paris, showing how he wished the queen to be 
honored : 

Dear and well-beloved: 

Our very dear and well-beloved consort the 
queen has the intention shortly to make her en- 
trance into our good city of Paris, and since we 
desire, with all our hearts, that she should be 
received by you and welcomed in the most joy- 
ous and honorable manner possible, we have 
thought fit to apprise you of the same, in order 
that you may do your part to show her such re- 
spect as you would show to our own person, and 
in so doing you will act in a way to cause us 
great pleasure, which we shall hold in memory 
when occasion shall require. 

May the Lord have you in his keeping. 

156 



ANNE'S SECOND CORONATION 157 

Given at Fontainebleau, October 30. 

(Signed) Louis 
"De Satjssaye." 

The response was most generous, a gift of 
ten thousand livres * of the money of Tours, 
the largest ever given any queen, was voted, 
and elaborate arrangements made to surpass 
even the first coronation. The ceremonies in- 
cluded a banquet at the hotel de ville; streets 
were hung with tapestries, houses were lighted 
with torches ready to receive the queen and her 
ladies if they needed rest or refreshment, there 
were long and brilliant processions, and mys- 
tery plays were enacted in praise of the lily and 
the ermine at the gates and in the squares 
through which Queen Anne passed. 

The coronation took place November 18, 
1503, in the abbey of St. Denis. Thus Anne de 
Bretagne, as she herself had prophesied, be- 
came a second time queen of France. Her 
guiding star had led her again to the throne, 
and once more she had the right to wear the 
royal crown, the only woman who was ever 
twice queen of France. As Cardinal d'Am- 

iAt this time the lime toumois (1. t.) was equal to four 
francs, or about eighty cents. 



158 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

boise placed the crown upon her head, did 
Louis and Anne recall how, twelve years be- 
fore, he had held that same crown over her head 
when she first became queen of France? That 
little incident must ever come back among the 
memories of their love of many years. Did 
they have at that first coronation glimmerings 
of what the future was to bring to them? We 
almost think Anne, with her prescience, might 
have had. No doubt the years that intervened 
had only made their relation more precious to 
them, and more interesting to those present, 
as it is to us who have come to know them 
through history and chateaux. 

The day after the coronation the queen- 
duchess tarried at La Chapelle, where she was 
met by the municipal authorities in ceremonial 
robes of crimson, followed by the trades, — 
drapers in violet, grocers in tan, furriers in 
gray, money-changers in brown, and gold- 
smiths in blue, making a brilliant appearance. 
The queen received under a canopy held by 
ten merchants, who felt greatly honored by the 
appointment. She listened to their speeches 
and replied gracefully, still standing, while the 
whole procession filed past her. Then she 



ANNE'S SECOND CORONATION 159 

mounted her litter and went her way to the gate 
of St. Denis. 

There one of the mystery plays was per- 
formed; a huge heart, erected over the gate, 
represented Paris supported by Justice, the 
clergy, and the people. Within the heart were 
two beautiful girls, Loyalty and Honor, who 
were presented to the queen with a compli- 
mentary verse recited by an actor. Another 
mystery had the Transfiguration for its theme, 
but the most interesting and appropriate was 
"The Five Annes," out of the Bible and 
Apocrypha, to which the name of Queen Anne 
was added. 

Five dames in Holy Scripture found, 
By name of Anne are much renowned. 
From one the wise child Samuel came, 
Elkanah was the father's name. 
The second married Tobit old. 
Her deeds of charity are told ; 
Mother of Sarah 1 next we see, 
To young Tobias wed was she. 
The fourth, a prophetess so bold 
That Messiah's coming she foretold. 
Mother of Mary, fifth we greet, 
Chosen of God, a virgin sweet. 
For sixth we add a name most dear, 

l This name is Edna in our Apocrypha. 



160 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

Whom all her people well revere ; 

When has a nobler ever been 

Than Anne, our lady and our queen? 

From the old gate, the queen, with an escort of 
Breton and French nobles, was borne under the 
canopy of the guilds to Notre Dame, where she 
was received by the bishop and where she said 
her prayers. The day, which must have been a 
wearing one, closed at the Palace of Justice, 
with a costly banquet at which the queen pre- 
sided, seated in the center of a famous " marble 
table,' ' with the court, members of Parliament, 
and her great ladies below her. The guests 
numbered more than a thousand and the French 
chefs produced their choicest viands. 

After the coronation the queen left Paris 
and returned to Touraine, but fetes were kept 
up in her honor until the end of December. 
During a part of this time she lived at Loches, 
where to-day is still to be seen the tiny oratory 
of Anne of Brittany in a wing built for her by 
Louis XII and reached by the private stair- 
way that she once used. 

LOCHES 

While in Tours, the royal city of Anne, we 
went to Loches, where the towers of the chateau 




Oratory of the Duchess Anne. — Chateau of Loches. 



ANNE'S SECOND CORONATION 161 

overlook the plains, as Mont St. Michel keeps 
guard over Anne's fair province of Brittany. 
A city of itself, the chateau of Loches has its 
tale of joy and woe, religious devotion, and ty- 
rannical cunning, but before we came to the 
room so intimately connected with Anne, an- 
other character claimed our attention. Al- 
though hardly a person was stirring on that 
summer's day of our visit to the chateau, our 
thoughts went back to 1509, when the streets of 
the city were alive with guards, archers, and 
the restless mob anxious to see Ludovico II 
Moro riding to prison, where for nine years 
he was kept in a loathsome cell until released 
by death. We saw this cell where the active 
Ludovico, deprived of exercise, sought an out- 
let for his feelings by covering the walls of his 
prison with inscriptions and decorations, but 
the bitterness of his words show that this 
recreation was little solace to the proud spirit. 
It was pleasanter to return to the daylight 
and rest awhile under the famous chestnut- 
tree planted by Francis I, Claude's husband, 
before our attention was brought back to the 
queen-duchess by climbing a turret staircase 
to her oratory. Again in the exquisitely 



162 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

carved chapel we saw the cordeliere and the 
ermine, unmistakable proof that we were in the 
room where our Anne must so often have 
brought her troubles to God. 

The next winter, 1505-1506, Anne for once, 
perhaps for the only time in her life, was in 
perfect accord with the doctors, since they in- 
sisted that the king, on account of his delicate 
health, should retire to Blois. 

At first the change of air seemed beneficial, 
and the happy family of three — Anne, Claude, 
and Louis — joyously spent the feast of the 
passover together. But soon after, the king 
had a collapse, followed by a fever which lasted 
several days, during which he could neither 
sleep nor take nourishment. In his delirium 
he called for Claude, and for his sword to go 
to battle. Night and day the queen watched by 
his bedside, hiding her fears under a calm ex- 
terior. Anxiety was general throughout the 
kingdom and extended even to Italy, for the 
king was much beloved by those who knew him. 
High and low alike crowded into the churches 
to implore God's help. The people of Paris 
prayed to St. Genevieve and had her image 



ANNE'S SECOND CORONATION 163 

borne through the streets, as was the custom, 
but Anne de Bretagne naturally addressed her 
petitions to a Breton Virgin, the one shrined 
at Notre Dame de Folgoet, and promised her- 
self to make a pilgrimage there during the 
year. In moments of consciousness the king 
revived sufficiently to make his will and express 
his entire trust in God, after which the end 
seemed so near that the last sacrament was ad- 
ministered. 

It is notable that in his will, which he sup- 
posed would be the last act of his life, he did 
not fail to honor Anne. He showed his con- 
fidence in her by making her guardian of 
Francis, with a royal council for conference. 

The prayers of the queen and of the nation 
prevailed, for the king rallied, and as soon as 
Louis was convalescent Anne hastened to ful- 
fill her vow by a journey of several months into 
her native land. During this time the king 
held court at Blois, surrounded by his prin- 
cipal counselors, having with him Claude, then 
five years old, and Louise of Savoy and her two 
children, Marguerite and Francis. The prog- 
ress of the queen-duchess was a veritable tri- 
umph ; several princes and a number of French 



164 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

lords accompanied her, and a great retinue of 
Bretons. In greeting, the cities hung out gay 
banners and offered open hospitality, clergy 
and peasantry, rich and poor, honored her, 
not only for herself but as the daughter of the 
duke who governed them so many years. Her 
visit was prolonged until it had lasted five 
months, the longest she ever made, and en- 
abled her to hold a meeting of the States Gen- 
eral and put in order the affairs of her Breton 
land. 

In midsummer her majesty arrived at Notre 
Dame de Folgoet and completed her vow. The 
legend around which this great church was built 
is that in the fourteenth century there lived in 
the neighboring forest an idiot called Folgoet, 
or "forest fool.'' In Brittany idiots are 
looked upon as gifts from God, and as this one 
went around repeating, "Ave Maria," when he 
begged for bread, he appealed to the supersti- 
tions of the people. After his death there grew 
from amidst the grasses of his grave a pure 
white lily with Ave Maria written in gold upon 
each leaf. For a month it was in blossom, to 
the wonder of the crowds that thronged to see 
it. At the end of that time Jean de Montfort 



ANNE'S SECOND CORONATION 165 

ordered a chapel to Our Lady built there to 
commemorate his victory over Charles of Blois 
at the battle of Auray. For this church Anne, 
in token of gratitude for the king's recovery, 
appointed three choir-boys and a sacristan and 
added a third tower. The arms of Brittany 
and of France are displayed on one of the key- 
stones of the vaulting, and on the lintels of the 
doors are ermines with the motto, " A ma vie." 

This motto was first taken by Duke John IV, 
to show that he had conquered Brittany, and 
would defend it even at the cost of his life — 
"A ma vie." 

At Dinan she stayed in the chateau built on 
a height by the Breton dukes, now a ruin ex- 
cept for " Queen Anne's tower." This is one 
hundred feet high and of four stories, reached 
by a winding staircase. The guard-room is a 
museum, and out of it there is a little room 
which was the oratory of the Duchess Anne, 
and a sculptured seat called her ' ' armchair. ' ' 
Two years afterward the queen gave to Dinan 
a clock for the great church-tower, tour de 
I'horloge. 

Near Dinan the foresters of the lord of La 
Hunaudaye, the terror of the neighborhood, 



166 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

stopped her and conducted her to a formidable 
castle into the presence of their lord. Instead 
of collecting toll of Anne of Brittany, as was 
his custom from those who passed through his 
domains, he gave her a royal welcome and a 
splendid banquet, at which a roasted calf, stand- 
ing with an orange in its mouth, was the crown- 
ing feature. 

jAt Les Neven, St. Pol, and Morlaix the 
duchess was received with great magnificence. 
In the churchyard of St. Dominick, at Morlaix, 
a genealogical tree depicted her descent from 
Conan Meriadec. On top of this tree a young 
girl welcomed the queen in a touching speech. 
Then the city presented her with a ship of gold 
studded with rare jewels, and with a tame er- 
mine, white as snow, wearing a collar of pre- 
cious stones. After being quiet a few minutes 
under Anne's caresses, the little animal ran 
along her arm into her bosom and frightened 
her. Lord Bohan, who stood near, seeing the 
queen start, said, "Do not be frightened, ma- 
dam; this is your own coat of arms. ''J 

By this time, the king, beginning to find 
Anne's absence a long one and wishing for her 



ANNE'S SECOND CORONATION 167 

return, sent for her to meet him at Anjou, but 
she was detained at Morlaix with an inflamma- 
tion over the left eye, which caused her much 
pain. Immediately she thought of the finger 
of St. John preserved at the church of St. Jean- 
du-Doigt, near Morlaix, and thereupon wrote 
to the canons to bring her, without delay, the 
finger of the apostle. The rectors assembled 
solemnly in the church and bore the treasure 
upon a rich litter on their shoulders. Scarcely 
had they started when the carriage broke and 
had to stop for repairs. When these were fin- 
ished the finger had disappeared. After long 
searching, accompanied by fervent prayers, it 
was found in its accustomed place. When the 
envoys of the queen in fear appeared before 
her, Anne understood that she had been arro- 
gant in her demands and showed her penitence 
by going on f o6t to the shrine. After the queen 
had finished her devotions and received com- 
munion, the bishop of Nantes took the holy 
relic, showed it to those assembled, and then 
placed it upon the queen's eye. For the cure 
that followed the duchess left many gifts, — a 
crystal case for the relic, a communion cup, 



168 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

chandeliers and incense burners with the arms 
of Brittany and France, and money for build- 
ing the church. 

Every year on the twenty-fourth of June 
thousands of pilgrims come to dip their hands 
in the holy water of "the fountain of the 
Duchess Anne" in the churchyard, and to see 
in the procession the model of the ship Cor- 
deliere, which was built in the near-by port. 

To call back this scene of her pilgrimage, one 
of the sweetest scenes in her life, we should 
visit St. Jean-du-Doigt at the hour of her com- 
ing, the hour of matins. Then the church, at 
the foot of a pretty valley traversed by a lit- 
tle stream, is just receiving the faint light of 
morning. On the north we have a glimpse of 
the bay and of wide fields, while the stillness 
that lies over the village shows that the in- 
habitants are asleep. A visit like this would 
enable us to look into the very soul of Anne, 
as in this peaceful hour she spoke alone to her 
God, who never failed to give her strength for 
the trials she must meet. 




Dinan.— Chateau of the Duchess Anne. 



CHAPTER XIII 

CLAUDE'S BETROTHAL 

Ever constant in the mind and heart of the 
duchess was the desire and purpose to keep 
Brittany independent of France; and it was 
not until after her death that, by the marriage 
of her daughter Claude to Francis I, king of 
France, the actual union of these two countries 
was realized. Foreseeing that she might not 
leave a male heir, and that Claude would bring, 
as a dowry to her husband, the duchy of Brit- 
tany, the queen made every effort to unite her 
daughter to the house of Austria. When 
Claude was scarcely eighteen months old the 
terms of her alliance had been discussed, and 
Philip the Handsome, archduke of Austria, son 
of Maximilian, had sent ambassadors to ask 
the hand of the child for his young son Charles, 
the grandson of Maximilian. In the month of 
August, 1501, a contract of marriage was 
drawn up containing this clause; "The king 
and queen, by the authority vested in them, 

169 



170 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

promise, on their word as king and queen, to 
make and bring about by every means, that 
their daughter, Madame Claude, having ar- 
rived at the age of puberty, take for her hus- 
band and spouse M. de Luxembourg. ' ' 

The queen showed the ambassadors every 
honor, giving them a splendid banquet followed 
by a masquerade ball with French, Spanish, 
German, and Italian dances. A masque repre- 
sented the alliance of the European powers 
against Turkey. Sire de Nery, one of the 
nobles, entered the hall dressed as a Turk, 
saluted the fair maidens of each country, one 
after another, until all had refused to dance 
with him, and then, forlorn and disappointed, 
withdrew without securing a partner. 

Near the end of November, 1501, the Arch- 
duke Philip himself and Juana, his wife, 
crossed France and were received with much 
ceremony at the chateau of Blois. The mag- 
nificent new wing had just been finished, and, 
to add to its appointments, the queen sent for 
her silver plate in the chateau of Nantes, and 
caused it to be engraved with her coat-of-arms 
and made to look as good as new. The queen- 
duchess upon her throne awaited the a*roh- 



CLAUDE'S BETROTHAL 171 

duchess, then rose, took two steps forward, and 
embraced her. Next little Claude, only two 
years old, was brought in to be presented, but 
the child was so frightened by the strange sur- 
roundings that she began to cry lustily, and be- 
fore it was possible to give even the customary 
greetings Dieu Garde, Claude had to be taken 
away by her governess. At this time, as let- 
ters show, Louis did not disagree with the cher- 
ished wish of his wife in regard to this mar- 
riage. But the conditions of the betrothal of 
Claude to the grandson of Maximilian were 
such that it is not strange that the king was 
persuaded not to carry them out, since Milan, 
Brittany, and Burgundy were assigned as the 
portion of Claude, and this would have 
alienated half the kingdom of France. 

The king's narrow escape from death in 
1505 impressed him and his counselors to pro- 
vide for his succession. There was great dis- 
satisfaction even in Brittany over the prospect 
of Claude's marriage to a foreign prince. It 
was the talk in the churches, on the streets, and 
in the taverns, until finally a petition of the 
people was presented to a council, which de- 
cided that the king might "save his country' ' 



172 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

by repealing the treaty of Blois. After this 
there was no other course open to him, and at 
the beginning of the year 1506 he signed an 
ordinance declaring "that he wished the be^- 
trothal of Claude and Francis for the good, 
safety, and maintenance of the affairs of the 
kingdom.' ' To strengthen his act, he assem- 
bled secretly the captains of the guard and had 
them take a solemn oath on the Bible and the 
cross "to serve Claude and see that she did 
not leave the kingdom.' ' Having done this, 
Louis then had his Bretonne to reckon with, 
and it proved no easy matter, for, still bent 
upon the alliance with the house of Austria, she 
did not cease to importune him. But in this 
case he could not be influenced even by the 
queen, disappointed and displeased though she 
were. In the beginning of their discussion he 
refused her in a jesting way, saying that he had 
decided "to ally his mice with the rats of his 
barn." She answered impatiently, "Evi- 
dently you think that every mother is in con- 
spiracy to treat her daughter ill!" Louis re- 
plied in fervent but figurative language: 
"Which is better for your daughter, to com- 
mand little Brittany under the authority of the 



CLAUDE'S BETROTHAL 173 

kings of France, or, as the wife of a powerful 
king, to rejoice with him in the benefits of a 
flourishing kingdom? Would you prefer the 
pack-saddle of a donkey to the pillion of a 
thoroughbred V Far from yielding to these 
arguments, Anne continued to insist upon hav- 
ing her way. Then it was that Louis repeated 
to her the fable of the roebuck to whom God 
had given horns but was obliged to remove 
them because she wished to use them against a 
stag. 

For this resistance to the queen-duchess 
Louis cannot be blamed. Surely not by any of 
his countrymen, for what would have become of 
France if Claude had married Charles of Lux- 
embourg and Brittany been joined to the im- 
mense estate under his scepter as Charles V 
of Spain? Although finally forced to yield, 
Anne was never reconciled, and held a secret 
hope that something would happen to prevent 
the consummation of the marriage. Happily 
for her she did not have to witness it, for it 
did not occur until March 15, 1514, two months 
after Anne's death. Brantome says, "It never 
would have taken place during the life of Anne 
de Bretagne." 



174 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

But the trial of witnessing the betrothal of 
her daughter to the future king of France was 
not spared the queen-duchess. On May 14, 
1506, the king, being at Plessis-les-Tours, 
seated in the grand salon in royal state, gave 
a public audience to the deputies of the king- 
dom. M. Thomas Brico, a doctor of Paris, was 
the speaker. He referred to the king's illness, 
with thankfulness for his recovery, and to his 
wise administration by which he had lessened 
the taxes, reformed the courts, placed good 
judges everywhere, and brought the kingdom 
into a better condition than was ever known in 
the past, claiming, that for these and other 
causes, he deserved to be called "Le Bon Roi, 
Louis XII, Pere du Peuple." Then Brico and 
the delegates knelt, as Brico said: "Sire, we 
have come here under your good pleasure to 
make you a request for the general good of 
your kingdom. Your very humble subjects 
beseech you that it please you to give madam 
your only daughter in marriage to M. Francis 
here present, who is a real Frenchman.' ' At 
the close of the speech the hall rang with ap- 
plause, and the king was moved to tears as he 



CLAUDE'S BETROTHAL 175 

accepted the glorious title " Father of the Peo- 
ple.' > 

Six days later, on the feast of the Ascension, 
in the great hall of the chateau of Plessis-les- 
Tours, the nuptials of Claude of France with 
Francis of Angouleme took place, the young 
prince being twelve years old while Claude was 
not quite eight. When the fact of the betrothal 
was inevitably settled, Anne showed her 
strength of character, as she always did in try- 
ing situations, by making the best of it and 
failing in no particular in the part that de- 
volved upon her. She herself, followed by a 
numerous retinue, conducted her daughter into 
the presence of the cardinal of Amboise, where 
Claude was solemnly affianced to the Count 
d' Angouleme. 

The queen's gift to her daughter was one 
million ecus of gold, with the additional prom- 
ise that "if there should be a male child, she 
would give him the duchy of Brittany." The 
king gave her, as her dowry, the counties of 
Blois and Asti, and other possessions for her- 
self and heirs. In the fetes that followed there 
was a tournament for Francis and the young 



176 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

princes of the blood. This must have been a 
brave sight, for they were in the freshness of 
youth and bore small lances especially made for 
them. The king acted as godfather to Francis, 
who carried oft' the palm. 

In the queen's opposition to the marriage 
with Francis there was another and perhaps 
deeper reason than love of country. The 
mother-heart knew that her daughter would 
never be happy with her gay cousin and his cor- 
rupt court. Once Anne expressed this feeling 
to Louis. "Poor Claude is lame and the duke 
of Valois would not care for her." To which 
Louis, with less perception, replied, "If he does 
not admire her for her beauty, he will love her 
for her mind and disposition." But the queen 
was right, for Claude became, as her mother 
had prophesied, a neglected wife. She wept 
over the immorality in the midst of which she 
had to live, and, save for Katherine of Aragon, 
found few sympathetic friends. Gentle, mod- 
est, and pure, she gave her whole affection to 
her husband, to be met only with neglect, 
harshness, and inconstancy. Aware of his ex- 
cesses and infidelity, her whole life was one of 
suffering and ended at the early age of twenty- 




Claude, Daughter of Louis XII and Anne. 



CLAUDE'S BETROTHAL 177 

five in the Palace of Blois. The king, who was 
absent from her at the time, received the news 
without feeling and arranged no ceremonies for 
her interment. Through her three sons the 
succession was assured, and in the hearts of 
her people she left an enduring memory of 
sweetness and charity. To-day, as then, she 
is called "the good Queen Claude." 

Imagine the feeling in Austria when the news 
reached them that a second contract was 
broken by the sovereigns of France. In vain 
the archduke sent a message drawn up in Latin 
by five Flemish councilors, in which they asked 
"if the king and the queen had not committed 
perjury in failing to keep their promise.' ' But 
the only answer was that "the ceremony had 
already taken place.' ' 

Anne knew that the marriage of Claude and 
Francis would irrevocably annex Brittany to 
France, and that the cherished desire of her 
life to keep her duchy independent was prob- 
ably gone forever; but she was too great a 
woman to indulge in recriminations, and, al- 
though secretly holding the old wish that some- 
thing might happen to prevent this union, she 
refrained from talking about it and thus vex- 



178 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

ing the king. Shortly after, however, she went 
to Brittany, doubtless to relieve her over- 
strained feelings. At any rate Anne's visit 
became so prolonged that the king grew un- 
easy, and Cardinal d'Amboise, fearing an es- 
trangement between the two, wrote anxiously 
for her return: 

The Caedinal George d'Amboise to the Queen 
Madame : 

How very happy I am that you say you will 
employ the greatest diligence possible to re- 
turn. Nevertheless, Madame, I am grieved 
that you do not state definitely the time when 
you will leave there, for I do not know how to 
reply to the king, who is in great perplexity 
about it. Might it please God to allow me to 
be near you to counsel you. . . . 

Madame, His Majesty has intrusted me with 
letters that the king of England has written 
you, and has charged me to write you to send 
him such men as will seem good to you. . . . 

Madame, I do not know of anything else to 
tell you except that I regret with all my heart 
that you and the king do not speak frankly with 
each other, for wicked people are gossiping, 
which greatly grieves your faithful servitors 
and those of His Majesty, and what I say about 
it, Madame, I take it upon my soul as I expect 
salvation. 

Madame, the king is returning to Blois with 
Madame your daughter, and he will have 



CLAUDE'S BETROTHAL 179 

Madame dAngouleme accompany him there. 
They will come back to Amboise by water. 

In closing, Madame, I beseech you to consider 
me always as your most humble servitor. 
Praying our Lord to give you a happy and long 
life. 

To Madame, the 17th day of September. 

Your very humble and very obedient subject 
and servitor, 

G. Cardinal d' Amboise. 

Upon the back: 

To the Queen, my Sovereign Lady. 

If there ever was a quarrel between Louis 
and Anne, who so well understood each other, 
this was the time. When the queen came back, 
Louis, who was goodness itself, received her 
lovingly, for " Louis had pardoned his Bretonne 
before she even asked his forgiveness." 



CHAPTER XIV 
THE COURT OF ANNE 

THE COTJKT AND HOUSEHOLD OF THE QUEEN- 
DUCHESS 

Anne of Bkittany has the distinction of be- 
ing the first queen to hold a court of her own. 

It was not only the scene of royal functions, 
the meeting-place of the French nobility and 
of foreign ambassadors, but it was also, as 
Brantome says, "a beautiful school for ladies," 
where the queen superintended their education 
and marriage and looked after their minds as 
well as their bodies. As she formed her ladies 
into a definite organization, she may be said 
truly to have started the first club for women 
in the world. Although differing in many 
ways from the societies of to-day, being broader 
and more inclusive, her coterie was not unlike 
them in many respects. Her ladies met regu- 
larly, with her as their head, engaged in hand- 
work, like our church sewing-societies, and lis- 

180 



THE COURT OF ANNE 181 

tened to readings from their poets, and to mu- 
sic, both instrumental and vocal, not unlike the 
program of the modern clubs. 

As Petrarch has been called the first modern 
man, so Anne might be called the first mod- 
ern woman. 

Early in the reign of Charles VIII, soon 
after her coronation, Anne instituted her court. 
This was a great step in the advancement of 
women, for never before had the ladies of the 
nobility been invited to court. 

The change from the monotony of domestic 
life in castles of dull Gothic towns, while the 
men were much away in the pursuit of war or 
hunting, to the excitement and gayety of a royal 
court was a great boon to them. Perhaps it 
pleased them more than it did the husbands, 
who had to provide the expensive wardrobes 
in which they appeared, but the men did not 
fail to respond, and gave to the women a new 
and honored place beside their lords. 

At the court the queen presided with the 
majesty and grandeur of any king, and gave 
audience to foreign ambassadors. "Such was 
her beauty, eloquence, and majesty that all 
went away from her presence full of admira- 



182 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

tion and satisfaction. ' ' A proficiency in for- 
eign languages added much to her success, for 
she tried to speak a few words to each am- 
bassador in his own tongue. In this connec- 
tion an anecdote has been passed around by 
her historians, of a teacher who once trespassed 
upon her dignity by what seemed to him and 
the king a practical joke. On one occasion, 
knowing that a Spanish ambassador was to be 
presented to her, Anne asked M. de Grignaux, 
her instructor, to teach her a few words of 
Spanish, and he, in a moment of mischief, 
taught her some expressions that were not 
comme il faut. Then he had her rehearse them 
to the king, who, without failing to enjoy the 
joke, enlightened her and reprimanded the jes- 
ter. As refinement was not as delicate in those 
days as now, the incident should not be judged 
too harshly, but it was entirely out of place in 
dealing with one of such majesty as the duchess. 

This occurred in the reign of Louis, who hon- 
ored Anne even more than Charles, if possible, 
for "no prince ever came to the court of France 
that Louis did not bid to do her reverence.' ' 

To realize how Queen Anne lived, and how 
her court was made up, we must know some- 



\ 



THE COURT OF ANNE 183 

thing of the customs of the sovereigns of the 
time and understand certain terms no longer 
in use in France. L'hotel is the name of the 
home of the king, and means the organized serv- 
ice for the needs of the sovereign, — his bed, 
clothing, nourishment, and the luxuries of his 
life. The hotel had many departments, such 
as the kitchen, the stables, the wine-cellars, and 
the bed-chamber, with a superintendent and as- 
sistants for each department. Attached to the 
hotel was the chapel, with its services. Always 
there was a distinction between those of high 
rank and the common people who took charge 
of the material needs. The king had also his 
own doctors, surgeons, and a military organiza- 
tion of the elite of the land. The most impor- 
tant personage of the hotel was the grand ma%- 
tre, always one of the great lords, and he 
it was who appointed the other officers. Un- 
der him were several maitres d'hotel, who pre- 
sided at solemn festivities and led processions, 
with trumpeters going before them. The 
grand equerry was everywhere prominent, and 
sometimes had as many as one hundred and 
twenty assistants. He was near the king in 
battle and carried the royal sword in proces- 



184 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

sions. The bed-chamber held a distinct place 
in the hotel, and its grand chamberlain had 
many under him for various services, such as 
assisting the king to rise, dress, and retire. 
These valets de chambre formed an ancient and 
honorable body. One of them was ever within 
hearing of the monarch, a post of great honor 
sought after by artists, writers, and nobles. 

The highest officers in the kingdom were the 
chancellor, the grand chamberlain, the grand 
master, and the constable, and the last was the 
highest of all, next to the king. Those in any 
way connected with the sovereign — grand of- 
ficers x of the crown, members of the council, 
princes of the blood, officers and ladies of the 
queen — belonged to the court. Naturally this 
made the court a floating population, extremely 
numerous and always growing, living by bene- 
fits from the crown, by pensions, by offices, and 
by all sorts of privileges. What the king had 
the queen had also, except an army, and, in ad- 
dition, her own Breton guard and her ladies 
and maids-of -honor. 

i Affairs of government and administration were delib- 
erated upon by councils, — the councils of the king and the 
privy council, composed of princes and nobles and presided 
over, the first by the king and the second by the chancellor. 



THE COURT OF ANNE 185 

From her household accounts, which are still 
in existence, we know the different members 
who made up her establishment and their 
salaries; some were paid as high as eighty- 
eight dollars a month, like the grand maitre 
d'hotel and knight of honor or chancellor, while 
artists received from two hundred and twenty- 
five dollars to twelve hundred and fifty 
dollars a year. Anne loved music and had 
in her service instrumental players, such as the 
lute-player; the player of the rebec, a three- 
stringed violin; player of the dumb spinet or 
manichord, who received about seven dollars a 
month; and seven singers at twenty-two dol- 
lars a month. There were eight equerries, six 
bread-stewards, and six meat-stewards at about 
thirty-five dollars a month; four house-mar- 
shals, at thirteen dollars a month; six butlers, 
two of whom had charge of the linen, and seven 
provisioners at fifteen dollars a month; eight 
stewards for the servants at twelve dollars 
each, and eight more at ten dollars and fifty 
cents each, one of them the bread-maker at 
eight dollars and eighty cents. Also cooks, 
kitchen-maids, clerks, fruit-stewards, dish- 
washers, chamber men and maids, valets of the 



186 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

queen and of her maids-of-honor, stewards of 
the wardrobe and of tapestries and rooms, doc- 
tors, and apothecaries were on the payroll. To 
her own doctor, Olivier Lanrens, she gave 
forty-four dollars a month. 

To gather a group of ladies and maidens 
about her, she inquired of the gentlemen of 
the court if they had daughters, and, if they 
had, she asked them to come to her. When her 
wish was known, many availed themselves of 
the opportunity and ' ' she turned no one away. ' ' 
It is interesting to see traces of the origin of 
this institution of Anne's in feudal times, when 
possessors of a fief brought girls to the cha- 
teau of the baron to enter some department of 
service, and the way in which she enlarged and 
ennobled this old and insignificant custom re- 
veals the greatness of her mind. While queen 
of Charles VIII she had sixteen dames and 
eighteen demoiselles, whose salaries varied 
from fourteen dollars to eighty-eight dollars 
a month; and later, when she married Louis 
XII, the number was increased to one hundred. 
Her daughter Claude, queen of the next reign, 
had even a larger number. She taught them 
to be wise and virtuous, trained them in em- 



THE COURT OF ANNE 187 

broidery and in love of poetry, and, when they 
were old enough, married them off either to 
nobles or to those of their own rank. 

The maids-of-honor included in their num- 
ber daughters of the noblest families of France 
and Brittany, as Charlotte of Aragon, Anne of 
Bourbon, Anne of Foix, dame de Montpensier, 
and Anne of Eohan, a cousin of the queen. 
Some were great beauties, especially Jeanne 
Chabot and Blanche Montberon. To maintain 
among her women a pure life, the queen 
founded for them her order of chivalry and 
gave the most worthy a decoration, a collar 
studded with precious stones in the form of a 
cordelier e, with the admonition "to live always 
a holy and chaste life and to keep in mind the 
cords and fetters of Jesus Christ." In com- 
pany with her maidens she spent a part of her 
leisure in making tapestries and embroideries. 
One of these pieces, a cope with pearl embroi- 
dery designed for Pope Leo X, was preserved 
in St. Denis until the French Eevolution. 

To those brought to her at an early age she 
was a veritable mother, and won from them 
true filial affection. She took care of them 
when ill, often rewarded them generously, and 



188 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

when they grew up made advantageous mar- 
riages for them. As an instance of the 
motherly care of the queen, it is related that 
when Anne de Foix, one of her maids-of -honor, 
fell ill, Anne bought cloth and made wrappers 
trimmed with fur to keep her warm at night, 
and when one of the humble maids of the palace 
lost her mother, Anne provided mourning for 
her. To another maid, the grandmother of 
Brantome, she gave crimson velvet and violet 
satin for costumes. 

In her careful supervision of these maids she 
had them come into her presence, and, with 
true delicacy of feeling, took aside any that 
had an awkward bearing or were not neatly or 
modestly dressed and advised and admonished 
them. She looked at the work of each one, and 
if there was any fault in it, corrected it ; or, if 
the lack of progress showed laziness in the 
maid, she censured her. 

As regards their conduct, she was as care- 
ful as if they had been her own daughters. 
Gentlemen were not allowed to talk with them 
alone, and were charged to converse with them 
only upon virtuous subjects. If any gentleman 
wished to speak of love, it must be with a view 



THE COURT OF ANNE 189 

to marriage; otherwise he had read to him a 
lesson which he did not soon forget, "for the 
wise princess did not wish her house to be open 
to a group of improper persons." Anne of 
Brittany did not overlook the lighter side of 
life and the need of youth for pleasure. Ac- 
cordingly her maids had hours of recreation 
and participated in festivals, walked or sat in 
groups in the gardens, visited the homes of ap- 
proved friends, and enjoyed lutes, guitars, 
spinets, and other musical instruments in 
vogue at that time. Besides singing in their 
rooms, which she asked them to do "modestly 
and in a Christian spirit/ ' she had them sing 
with her often, but she always chose the psalms 
of David or the odes of the dead queen of 
Navarre. For their reading she selected 
either the Holy Scriptures or history, and did 
not want them to read other books. 

The lot of those near her was most pleasant ; 
they shared in her joys and well-being; the 
beds in which they slept, the chariots in which 
they rode, the furniture they used, were care- 
fully provided by the queen. But the supreme 
service to her maids was, in her own estimation, 
the arranging of a happy alliance, and her sue- 



190 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

cess in that line soon made her renowned as a 
matchmaker. In this role she worked with all 
her energy, and let neither money nor difficul- 
ties stand in her way. Generally the queen 
gave about two thousand five hundred dollars 
to her maids as a marriage dowry, although 
there are instances which show that this was 
sometimes a personal sacrifice. During the 
war in Italy, when she wanted money for the 
dowry of three of her maids, Isabeau de SafTre, 
Marie de Sainte-Amadour, and Nicole de Tour- 
non, she secured it by taking to the banker's a 
cut diamond which she did not redeem until two 
years later. 

Through Brantome 's * chatty work, l l The 
Book of the Ladies," 2 we can come almost di- 
rectly in touch with these maids-of-honor, for 
one of them was his grandmother, Mme. la 
Seneschale, in whose cabinet he found an old 

i Pierre de Bourdeilles, or Brantome, as he is called, was 
born in 1537 of an ancient and honorable family in Gas- 
cony. He lived most of his life at court and has been called 
the "valet de chambre of history." 

2 His "Dames Illustres" includes Anne of Brittany, Cather- 
ine de Medici, Marie Stuart, Elizabeth of France, Marguerite 
of Navarre, and others. The original title was "Premier et 
Second Livre des Dames," changed by a translator to "Vies 
des Dames Oalantes and Vies des Dames Illustres." 



THE COURT OF ANNE 191 

history with an account of Anne. Another was 
his aunt, Mme. de Dampierre, who from the 
age of eight was brought up at Anne's court 
and afterwards became lady of honor to a 
queen of Henry VIII. From them and other 
elderly persons whom he knew, — he himself 
had seen Anne's portrait from life, — he re- 
ceived direct accounts, and all agreed that she 
was "beautiful, agreeable, virtuous, wise, and 
very charitable; with only one fault, a hasty 
temper, which made her quick to revenge and 
slow to pardon one who offended her." But 
she always kept her rank, her grandeur, and 
supremacy, and made herself so trusted that 
"no one ever found anything to say against 
her." 

Moreover, the loving heart of the queen en- 
folded the children of her household, and for 
them she established a school where they were 
trained and educated, another instance of her 
foreshadowing of modern institutions. She 
not only founded the school, but, in some cases, 
notably that of the children of one of her phy- 
sicians, helped to defray personal expenses. 

For the little ones about her, called her 
"children of honor," she furnished sumptuous 



192 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

costumes of velvet, and her pages wore a livery 
with her colors. She gave them presents on 
New Year's Day, Easter Day, and Innocents' 
Day, on condition always that they had been 
to confession. From these children she de- 
manded the same obedience as from their 
elders, and the least fault was severely pun- 
ished. An amusing instance of this is noted 
in connection with the two pages who rode the 
mules that bore the queen's litter, M. Bour- 
deilles, father of Brantome, and M. d'Estrees. 
Brantome tells the story as he heard it from 
his father: If the mules bearing the litter did 
not take about the same gait, of course it was 
not pleasant for the queen. On this particular 
occasion in question, one of the mules broke 
into a lively gait and forced the other to keep 
up, so that the queen was badly jostled. Anne 
called out, "Bourdeilles, you shall be whipped, 
you and your companion!" Each tried to lay 
the blame on the other, but she accepted no 
excuses and had them flogged. 

With all her majesty, Anne of Brittany was 
democratic, for she gave to the servants of 
her house, and of the king's also, the same 
thoughtful attention as to her maids-of -honor. 



THE COURT OF ANNE 193 

Those in her charge, of whatever birth or rank, 
came to her in their troubles and always found 
sympathy and help. Gifts were frequently 
added to their wages, and when old age over- 
took the faithful ones, she gave them a regular 
pension, according to their age, needs, or rank, 
a forecast of modern methods truly remark- 
able. In case of death she frequently paid the 
burial expenses or gave money to those left 
behind. Nor did she fail to arrange marriages 
for them, as the following characteristic letter 
shows. 

To M. de Sainctbonnet : 

M. de Saistctbonnet, 
The king will write you presently concerning 
the marriages of the son of Monsieur de Menou, 
my counselor and master-in-ordinary of the 
household, with the daughter of Madame de 
Monthelon, your wife, and of Lois de Fau with 
the daughter of the said lord of Menou. 

And because these marriages seem to me rea- 
sonable from every point of view, and that you 
would not be able to arrange better ones, I have 
wished to write about them. I pray that you 
and your said wife will indeed wish to consent, 
and to grant and sanction the said marriages in 
such a manner that they will successfully come 
to pass, and you will do me a very great and 
marked favor which I shall hold deep in my 



194 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

memory when you require anything of me. 
May God have you in his keeping. 

Written at Blois, the 19th day of January. 

Anne. 

Such a reputation did Anne of Brittany ac- 
quire for training young women, that the sov- 
ereigns of Europe besought her to obtain a 
suitable bride for themselves or their lords. 
One of the most interesting examples is that 
of Ladislau II, king of Poland, of Bohemia, 
and of Hungary, who, when a widower, sent 
his ambassadors to arrange an alliance for him- 
self. He asked for a relative of the king of 
France, and out of her maids-of-honor Anne 
suggested two princesses of the house of 
Foix, — Anne Candale and Germaine Phoebus, — 
nieces of the king, whose beauty is said to have 
been so great that "they were known the world 
over." After some hesitation Anne de Foix 
was chosen. It was hot without deep emotion 
and many tears that the young girl left the 
court and her companions for a king in a far- 
off country. Anne is said to have loved her as 
a daughter and had her attended by a brilliant 
company of gentlemen and ladies. Bretagne, 
Anne's king at arms, was charged to write 



THE COURT OF ANNE 195 

faithfully of the journey and of the future home 
of the bride, and his accounts of the unhealth- 
fulness of the climate and the poor health of 
the king frightened the queen so much that she 
sent a faithful servant with letters to the 
young princess. 

But Ladislau, who had already written the 
queen a Latin letter, assured her of his health 
and that of the maiden. Moreover, he thanked 
her profoundly for having sent "so beautiful 
and perfect a princess.' ' Alas! the ending of 
the brilliant union was sad ; for the young wife, 
who never forgot the court of France, died 
ten months later at the birth of a son. 

Germaine lost nothing by waiting, for she 
was chosen by Ferdinand, king of Spain, after 
the death of Queen Isabella, and in December, 
1505, she was sent to Spain attended by a 
bishop, a chamberlain, a judge, and a notary. 
Louis wrote to the king of Spain, "We esteem 
her as our very dear and well-beloved daugh- 
ter.' ' Moreover, Louis transferred to Ger- 
maine his rights to Naples in what is known as 
the fourth treaty of Blois. 

Another of these interesting maids-of-honor 
was an exile from Italy, Charlotte d'Aragon, 



196 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

daughter of Frederick III, a king despoiled of 
Naples and Sicily. As her mother, niece of the 
wife of Louis XI, had been brought up at the 
court of France, she was treated with the re- 
spect due to a sovereign princess and became 
demoiselle d'honneur to Anne of Brittany un- 
der the name of "the princess of Tarente. ,, 
She had her own household, modeled after that 
of the queen, with a governess, ladies-in-wait- 
ing, a chaplain, equerry, and stewards; also a 
litter, a mule, and several horses. 

While growing up, the little Charlotte be- 
came a charming girl full of courage and wit, 
and famed at court for her liveliness and gay- 
ety. When, after the death of Charles VIII, 
the duchess left Paris to go to Nantes, she 
parted with the princess regretfully, and gave 
her, as a token of affection, a toilet-set of mas- 
sive silver composed of a water-pitcher and 
basin, a cup, and a flask. When Caesar Borgia 
tried to obtain Charlotte from her father, with 
the principality whose name she bore, the 
queen sustained them both in their refusal, and 
arranged a glorious match with Guy, sixteenth 
of the name, count of Laval, lord de la Boche, 
baron of Brittany. Evidently Anne felt that 



THE COURT OF ANNE 197 

the highest honor she could give her was an 
alliance with a noble Breton, and by this union 
Anne still kept at court this young woman 
whose wit and beauty every one admired, and 
at the same time added a powerful Breton 
knight to her own inner circle. 

One of her maidens, called Rolandine, had a 
sad story. Although a cousin of the queen, 
she received no favors, for she was a daughter 
of the house of Rohan, who had served France 
instead of Brittany for many years. Left out 
of all matrimonial plans, while her companions 
were being married off, Rolandine at the age of 
thirty found a lover for herself. Called to ac- 
count by the queen, she declared that they had 
only exchanged "a ring, a promise, and a kiss/' 
but this was considered by her Majesty as a 
secret marriage, and the girl, unwilling to give 
up her choice, was sent back to her father. He 
shut her up for years in a chateau and never 
pardoned her until her lover was safely mar- 
ried. When nearly forty, Rolandine married 
her cousin, Pierre de Rohan. 

Among the most beautiful ladies of the court 
were the three daughters of Admiral Graville, 
of a family so ancient that it was said, ' ' There 



198 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

was a sire in Graville before there was a king 
in France. ' ' The eldest, Louise, married Jacques 
de Vendome; the second daughter, Jeanne, 
married Charles dAmboise, nephew of the 
cardinal and commander in the French army. 
She was one of the four favorite ladies who 
attended Jeanne de France, and, like her mis- 
tress, was exemplary in her life. The young- 
est daughter was Anne, who eloped with Pierre 
de Balzac, a scamp without money, but she 
afterward was pardoned by her father and 
placed by the queen in the house of Claude of 
France. 

The twofold reign of Anne of Brittany occu- 
pied twenty-two years out of her short life of 
thirty-seven, and in all this period the pleas- 
antest scene in her daily life was with her maid- 
ens, when, seated in their midst, she wrought 
a beautiful piece of tapestry while Jean Marot 
read aloud one of his own poems, or her min- 
strels charmed with sweet music. In every- 
thing she was herself an example of what she 
wanted women to be, in chastity, industry, 
benevolence, wedded happiness, and religious 
devotion. 

How sad it is, then, to see in the next reign 



THE COURT OF ANNE 199 

the degeneration of the court! But the seed 
of progress and virtue that Anne, as queen of 
France, had sown did not die, but sprang up to 
blossom two centuries later, when Madame de 
Maintenon, an uncrowned queen, held sway in 
the Hotel de Rambouillet. 



CHAPTER XV 

WRITERS AND ARTISTS AT THE 
COURT OF ANNE 

Although there are no great names in litera- 
ture in the days of Anne, the writers of the time 
having been called "twinkling luminaries," 
doubtless she prepared the way and helped to 
produce the geniuses who came later; and the 
fact that great genius did not exist was the rea- 
son Anne did not produce an age like the Eliza- 
bethan one of England. She encouraged learn- 
ing and skill in all its forms, and was the pre- 
cursor of the literary salon of Louis XIV, but 
the Renaissance was not yet fully born and the 
Dark Ages not entirely past. 

The name best known to us is Philip de 
Commines (1447-1511), the "father of modern 
history,' ' whose memoirs containing the his- 
tories of Louis XI and Charles VIII, kings of 
France, and of Charles the Bold, duke of Bur- 
gundy, were written during Anne's life, though 
not printed until after her death. He was a 

200 



WRITERS AND ARTISTS 201 

nobleman of Gascony, and was one of those near- 
est to Charles VIII in his Italian campaign. 

Others in the literary circle who received the 
patronage of the king and queen and improved 
the language and literary taste of the period 
were poets, mystery writers, and historians. 

Among the writers who lived at court there 
was one Jean le Maire of Belgium, who was born 
three years before Anne. Through his educa- 
tion at Paris and residence in different countries 
he became cosmopolitan, and at one time took 
the title of " secretary and biographer of the 
very high and very excellent princess Anne de 
Bretagne." He is best known by a book with 
the singular name " Illustrations of Gaul and 
Curiosities of Troy." He has the sprightli- 
ness of the Middle Ages, the mysticism of Ger- 
many, and the learning of the new philosophers. 
Although often obscure, and an incomplete 
writer, he is rather remarkable, and sometimes 
gives finely expressed glimpses of Nature, as for 
example : 

And with pity perhaps 

They will scatter green branches, 

Both flowers and violets upon my tomb, 

"When everything is at rest, 

And when the moon is shining. 



202 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

In those days writers often produced both 
poetry and prose, and poets were frequently 
chroniclers of the king, as St. Gelais and Jean 
dAuton. Another one who chronicled events 
in the king's life was Claude Seyssel of Savoy 
and the university of France. In 1493 he re- 
ceived a pension from Charles VIII, who had 
him at court in the last years of his reign. In 
later life he became archbishop of Turin. 

Octavien de Saint Gelais, as a poet at the 
court of Anne, translated Greek and Latin au- 
thors ; as historian he published praises of the 
king, and wrote of the victory of Louis against 
the Venetians. His principal work, ' ' The Great 
Monarchy of France," appeared in 1519, but 
was compiled at the time of Louis XII. In 
this book he stated his idea of the monarchy 
as a protecting power and the king as the father 
of the people, in opposition to Machiavelli's 
ideas of the monarch as an absolute king. 

Jean dAuton, who lived at court the last 
fourteen years of Anne's life, as historiographer 
of Louis, excelled in military subjects; but as a 
poet wrote verses exalting women, and espe- 
cially Anne, "the good, generous, beautiful, and 
prudent queen of honor, a pattern for the good. ' ' 



WRITERS AND ARTISTS 203 

Jean Marot was valet de chambre of the 
duchess, and was called "poet of the magnani- 
mous Anne of Brittany. ' ' He did not cease to 
exalt the virtues and liberality of the duchess, 
and wrote a long poem on her convalescence 
after her illness in 1512. He also went to Italy 
with Louis at Anne's request, and the "Voyage 
a. Genes" was the result. 

Another poet who was at the height of his 
power in Anne 's time was Jean Bouchet, an ex- 
ample of whose fantastic work shows some of 
the whimsical writings of the period. 

Faulce fortune, fragile f antastique, 
Folle, fumeuse, folliant, folliatique, 
Favorisant follastres follement, 
Furieuse f emme furibondique, 
Faisant fremir f elonneux f ortifiques, 
Fortifiant faintifs folz faulsement. . . . 

The poet of the mysteries, Pierre Gringoire, 
was the herald-at-arms of the duke of Lorraine. 
He owes his celebrity to Victor Hugo, who made 
him one of the characters in "Notre Dame de 
Paris,' ' although he does not belong to the time 
of Louis XI, as there represented, but to the 
three succeeding kings. Many of the mysteries 
were given at the expense of the guilds, Grin- 



204 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

goire writing the verses and Jean Marchand 
arranging the decorations and costumes. 

With her arduous tasks it is not surprising to 
find a long list of those who served as Anne's 
secretaries. There was the poet Lavigne, who 
wrote of the Italian wars, and Faustus Andre- 
linus, who came from Rome to the University of 
Paris as professor of letters and mathematics. 
Other Italians flocked to her court, among them 
Conti, who presented to the queen a poem on the 
city of Paris, and a geometrician named David 
dTtalie. 

Learning seemed to be in the air. Her con- 
fessor, Antoine Dufour, made a translation of 
the Bible in French and composed a history of 
illustrious ladies. Even Jean Meschinot of 
Brittany, one of Anne's Maitres d' Hotel, was a 
mediocre poet. 

Anne loved and encouraged scribes, illumina- 
tors, and painters, who were employed by her, 
some for the execution of manuscripts, others 
for pictures and portraits for which she had a 
veritable passion. A school of French artists, 
skilled in every way, was formed at court under 
the happy influence of Anne and her two hus- 
bands. 



WRITERS AND ARTISTS 205 

Jean Bourdichon, painter, was especially fav- 
ored by Anne. He was valet de chambre of 
Charles VIII, and a painter in official capacity 
to the four kings, Louis XI, Charles VIII, 
Louis XII, and Francis I. He was one of the 
most skilful and versatile artists of his time, 
painting pictures of history, miniatures, por- 
traits, panoramas of cities, banners, standards, 
and armorial bearings. Born in 1457, he fig- 
ured in the expense accounts in the year 1484, 
with the title, "painter to the king." It is that 
year that he received nine hundred pounds for 
having painted forty pictures representing the 
knights of the order of St. Michael, commeuc- 
ing with the founder, Louis XI, for whom 
Bourdichon had executed many different kinds 
of paintings. 

In 1491 he painted, for the queen, models for 
her money in Brittany — twelve different kinds 
of gold and silver coinage representing the city 
and chateau of Nantes in varied designs and 
colors. Many times did Anne have recourse to 
the talent of this versatile artist. In November, 
1492, she paid him fifty livres of the money of 
Tours, which enabled him to build a house to 
recompense him for having made and illumined 



206 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

several stories which were destined for her. 
Her first husband, Charles VIII, also ordered 
him to paint a great number of pictures. 
Among others there were four lifelike portraits 
of Charles himself in bust and full length, one 
of Anne, and one of her cousin, the princess of 
Tarente. There is to-day in the Louvre a por- 
trait by Bourdichon of Charles Orlando. 

In 1507, when Frangois de Paule died at the 
convent of Minimes at Plessis-les-Tours, the 
queen ordered Bourdichon to make a portrait 
of the holy man. Thus his prolific work kept 
up, even in the reign of Francis I, for in June, 
1520, on the occasion of the interview of Fran- 
cis I and Henry VIII on the field of the cloth of 
gold, it is still Jean de Bourdichon who is com- 
missioned to paint a St. Michael with his em- 
blems as well as the escutcheons, banners, and 
pavilions of that memorable occasion. 

From Anne's accounts we learn that to 
Jehan Poyet, illuminator and historian, living 
at Tours, a certain sum was ordered to be paid 
for having made for the Book of Hours twenty- 
. three rich stories, two hundred and sixty-one 
vignettes, and fifteen hundred verses by a con- 
tract entered into by him with the said lady, 



WRITERS AND ARTISTS 207 

which sum was paid to him by the present treas- 
urer, in virtue of the said role, and command of 
which mention has been made, of which receipt 
for the same is dated the 29th day of August in 
the year one thousand four hundred and ninety- 
seven. 

Jean Perreal, or John of Paris (1455-1529), 
was painter for the three kings, Charles VIII, 
Louis XII, and Francis I, and shared with 
Bourdichon the favors of Anne of Brittany. It 
was he who presented Jean le Maire of Bel- 
gium to the queen and recommended him as a 
writer. He accompanied Louis to Italy and 
painted scenes and incidents, but fell ill by the 
way and so had to give up his work. Anne had 
great confidence in him, and had him put her 
device on vessels of gold and silver. To him are 
attributed the emblems which adorned her fu- 
neral bed, and the miniatures which decorate the 
manuscript of her funeral services composed 
by the king-at-arms, Pierre Choque. 

Anne appreciated Italian art to the full, but 
she was conservative and preferred traditional 
methods and French genius. 

Solario, a pupil of Leonardo da Vinci, is the 
best known Italian artist who worked for Anne. 



208 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

Although the master never came to France, 
Solario journeyed there and located at Blois, 
near the person of Louis XII, but none of the 
works he did there remain. One of his paint- 
ings, however, is in the Louvre. Other Italian 
artists at the court were Paganino and Moda- 
nino. The latter was knighted by Charles VIII 
and designed the tomb of that king. 

Anne also employed those skilled men whom 
Charles had established at Tours. Michel 
Colomb, the most illustrious of the French 
school of sculpture, who had his atelier in that 
city, made fountains, tombs, and bas-reliefs. 
Born in Brittany in 1460, and encouraged in his 
youth by Duke Francis, Michel Colomb worked 
for Louis XI, Charles VIII, and other sover- 
eigns of Europe. In 1507 Anne gave him the 
order to sculpture the figures which adorn the 
tombs of her father and mother. One bas-relief 
which he made in 1508 is now in the Louvre. It 
represents St. George fighting the dragon. A 
young woman who saved the saint by killing 
the dragon is dressed in a costume similar to 
that worn by Anne and one of her ladies. 

Anne honored with her protection goldsmiths, 
stucco-workers, wood-carvers, gardeners, hew- 



1 M * '*&* 


[ i '^< V ?J 1 


r H* 






I§lf i Hi* > ; I - ■> 

B'-' §HF 4 f IB All * ft ' ^ 9Hr 




pv . / J ■ ■ 1 '^fc0^«W vH 1 






r : (:•■" - 




Id; 1 ^y/ll Fl H •< 

I ■■f |»\«# ■ 

1 I IFo 1 # m\ iiWf™ - If* 

■ • b ■ iiB^^^W 

1 1 Ur 1 F Hr* 1 ' 

BL : » •' - •^s fl fl Ri' 




r v 1 1 

■t fi ^B* 




p b S3 




B, Ss IBM 



Justice," from the Tomb of Anne's Father and Mother; 
probably the portrait of anne herself. 



WRITERS AND ARTISTS 209 

ers of stone, embroiderers, and architects. 
Some became celebrated, as Giocondo, designer 
of buildings, and Courtonne, whose genius is re- 
sponsible for the Hotel de Ville. The former, 
Giocondo, remained in France from 1495 to 
1505, ten years of Anne 's life. A clever writer, 
a learned man, an engineer and architect, he 
reconstructed the bridge of Notre Dame and was 
listened to as a counselor of art. 

December 16, 1492, Robertet, secretary of 
Anne de Beaujeu, and one of the most polished 
and spiritual men at court, received thirty-five 
livres toumois for chains to be distributed 
among ladies whom the queen deemed worthy to 
join the order of the Cordeliere. The emblem 
of this order consisted of a plaque of gold hung 
around the neck, formed by a double letter in- 
terlaced and done in red and white enamel. 
Every letter was intwined with a cord in black 
enamel. The plaque for the queen was formed 
of thirty-two double Roman A's. 

A jeweler of Paris sold to the queen a cameo 
in three parts, one of the painting of the Vir- 
gin, the second that of St. Michael, and the third 
that of the face of Louis XL Besides, there 
was a pelican studded with rubies and sur- 



210 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

rounded by the cord of St. Michael, which pre- 
cious jewel was given by Anne to Charles VIII 
as a New Year's present in 1492. Jean de 
Candida, a clever medal-maker, made medals of 
Charles VIII, Louis XII, and Anne of Brittany. 

One of the most skilful artisans, Viviers, was 
ordered to furnish a round chain of twisted gold. 
The best workers in tapestry were Lef evre, Dol, 
Duhamel, and Boutet. They made the histori- 
cal tapestries for the chateau of Amboise when 
the duke and duchess of Bourbon came in 1494 
to visit the king and queen, and which were so 
elaborate that four thousand hooks were neces- 
sary to suspend them. On these tapestries were 
represented not only characters from the Bible 
but also celebrated heroes of romance and con- 
temporaneous history — the labors of Hercules, 
the siege of Troy, the destruction of Jerusalem, 
the Bomance of the Bose, the history of Moses, 
the Sybils, Jonathan, Nebuchadnezzar, and the 
battle of Formigny, in which Charles VII tri- 
umphed over the English. 

No side of art was overlooked by Anne, and 
the true worth of her possessions which have 
come down to us reflects the depth and charm 
of Anne's character and her rare power of dis- 



WRITERS AND ARTISTS 211 

crimination for the best, as shown by the artists 
she called to her court. By means of their ef- 
forts our duchess surrounded herself with that 
which was beautiful and pleasing to look upon, 
whether in her bedroom and oratory or her din- 
ing-room and salon, the latter a fitting back- 
ground for those receptions at which the 
duchess-queen so graciously presided. 



CHAPTEE XVI 

LE LIVRE D'HEURES OF ANNE DE 
BRETAGNE 

The Book of Hours x of Anne of Brittany was 
her prayer-book. It is one of the most famous 
illuminated manuscripts in the world — a tri- 
umph of artistic production. Not only is it one 
of the most perfect monuments of French art 
at the end of the fifteenth century, but it is also 
a striking proof of the delicate taste of the 
queen-duchess, who wisely chose skillful paint- 
ers for the execution of a book which she was 
to use in her daily devotions. 

On nearly every page the flowers, plants, 
fruits, and insects of Touraine, that "laughing 
garden of France," shine forth in their living 
colors, a reminder of Anne's delight in nature, 
and especially in her gardens, — the one made 
for her by Charles VIII at the chateau of Am- 
boise, and the other by Louis XII at the chateau 
of Blois. Anne of Brittany herself permeates 

i The original, once in the Museum of Sovereigns in the 
Louvre, is now in the National Library in Paris. 

212 






LE LIVRE D'HEURES 213 

the whole work. Every page represents her 
garden with its flowers or fruits she loved to 
watch and gather. 

In having a collection of prayers for her use 
made de luxe, and at great expense, by the dis- 
tinguished artists of her time, she was conform- 
ing to a custom which for several centuries had 
been practiced by Christian Europe. To take 
examples from France alone : about 781, Charle- 
magne and his wife, Hildegarde, had the Gos- 
pels written in letters of gold upon purple vel- 
lum, while Charles the Bald had a prayer-book, 
a Bible, and two psalters, one of which belonged 
to his mother, Blanche of Castille, who received 
it from her husband, Louis VIII. Charles V 
also put his signature into this beautiful and 
precious volume. 

Down to the time of Louis XIV it was the 
custom of kings and princes to possess one or 
more books of prayer of great magnificence; 
even the common people indulged in this luxury. 
A Book of Hours, like a piece of furniture, was 
an heirloom in a family, and was handed down 
from one generation to another. In the mar- 
gins, births, marriages, and deaths were re- 
corded in the same way as in our family Bibles. 



214 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

The Book of Hours of Anne of Brittany forms 
a folio volume of thirty centimeters by nineteen 
centimeters. Since the time of Louis XIV its 
binding in dull black has enclosed two hundred 
and forty pages of white vellum, and is held to- 
gether by two clasps of silver gilt with the initial 
of the duchess, a Gothic A, surmounted by a 
crown. The book is enriched by numerous 
miniatures and reproductions of flowers, plants, 
and fruits known in France, upon which are 
placed the insects belonging to each variety. 
Then there are many ornamental initials and 
little vignettes or engravings placed either at 
the beginning of chapters, or between the verses, 
or at the ends of the lines. We read that Anne 
used the Book of Hours so much that it was 
rebound during her life. The miniatures ap- 
pear to have been done by French artists, who 
have, in a worthy manner, dignified their coun- 
try and religion. The designs bordering the 
pages are from the hand of Jean Poyet. 

Forty-nine large miniatures of the Evange- 
lists and Saints are taken from the Old and New 
Testaments. These are placed in the volume at 
irregular intervals, according to the sense of 
the text. The twelve pages devoted to a cal- 



LE LIVRE D'HEURES 215 

endar are surrounded by various pictures which 
are placed in the borders as usual in Books of 
Hours. They represent the occupations of the 
country during each month. The peasants are 
charmingly shown and give an exact idea of the 
varied nature of fresh and laughing Touraine. 
They were probably painted from life. 

Besides these are seventeen complete encadre- 
ments, which entirely surround the text ; thirty- 
three demi-encadrements, which fill a part of the 
margin ; two hundred and eighty-two panel-like 
strips painted on a background of gold on the 
outer margin only, and containing flowers, 
plants, or fruit; two pages of initials and de- 
vices; eighty-five blank pages, and four pages 
for the fly-leaf, making the total four hundred 
and eighty-four. The crowned L, A, A, L, 
initials of Anne de Bretagne and Louis XII, are 
painted on the corners of the back of the first 
leaf, and there is in the center a vast coat of 
arms, part of France and part of Brittany, en- 
circled by the cordeliere. The same initials are 
repeated on the right side of the last leaf, with a 
crown formed by a circular border of blue shells 
around letters forming the two words, non win- 
der a (elle ne changer a pas) in the middle of the 



216 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

page. In the reproduction these designs are 
used on the first cover page of each volume. 

The book itself includes four very distinct 
types of illustrations, the calendar, three hun- 
dred and thirty-two floral decorations on a gold 
ground, the graceful initials and little vignettes 
which separate the chapters and verses and fill 
out the lines, and, last of all, forty-nine large 
pictures. The initials and the vignettes cover- 
ing the pages of this beautiful volume are 
painted in perfect taste on a gold ground in two 
colors only, pale lilac and white, doubtless by 
the same hand, with a remarkable variety of de- 
signs, and in harmony with the text and the 
flowers that adorn it without injuring the com- 
position. The illustrations dedicated to plants, 
flowers, fruits, and insects form the most consid- 
erable portion of the decoration of the volume, 
and give to the book, aside from any question of 
art, a special character, as they prove also the 
fondness of the queen for flowers. If it is true, 
as has been said, that the plants painted upon 
the margins of this book were found in the gar- 
dens of the chateau, it did credit to the garden- 
ers. At Blois 1 there was a high garden and a 

iThe expense account tells of marble fountains made at 
Tours for the gardens at Blois. 



LE LIVRE D'HEURES 217 

low garden which Louis and Anne went to great 
expense to embellish. The smaller one, which 
was the low garden, received the name i ' Garden 
of the Queen,' ' as it was the one she preferred. 
In the panel-like decorations in the outer mar- 
gin of the book the Latin name of the plant is 
written in scarlet letters at the top of the page, 
and the French name is underneath in letters 
of gold upon a band of color. One can scarcely 
believe to what an artistic point the artist has 
carried the truth of his design, the freshness and 
vivacity of the colors. To give life to each one 
of the plants, he has added the insects or little 
animals that cling to the plants or flowers, that 
fly, that crawl and live among them. A little 
green toad is painted at the foot of the garden- 
cress ; upon the primrose and the poppies there 
are two butterflies and a bee, and on the lilies 
and red roses a bee, caterpillar, lady-bug, spider, 
several butterflies, a grasshopper and a snail. 
Sometimes the artist animates the scene as in 
one illustration which represents the nuts of 
the wood, where two monkeys are quarreling 
over the fruit near which they are found on the 
stem at the bottom of the page. The charm of 
these artistic gems has been acknowledged by 



218 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

Frognall Dibdin, a well known English bibliog- 
rapher, seldom given to enthusiasm, who says, 
"I cannot indeed find expression, as I would like 
for my appreciation of the greater part of these 
decorations, the plum seems just ready to eat, 
the diaphanous wings of the butterfly seem to 
quiver, the velvety insects agitate the fibers and 
muscles of the foliage as they cling to the leaves 
sparkling with dew or covered with the lightest 
down. Flowers and vegetables rival nature in 
their admirable execution." 

It is just to say that the reproduction of the 
plants and flowers is beyond criticism and also 
exact from a scientific point of view, showing 
that they were scrupulously studied. But as re- 
gards the insects, molluscs, crustaceans on or 
among the plants, the artist, without reference 
to science, has followed his fantasy and his little 
animals are agreeable to look at but impossible 
to find in the works of creation. 

Anne, herself, is pictured in her Book of 
Hours, the first time on page 7 in the second 
large miniature. In serious mood she is kneel- 
ing in front of a table upon which a Book of 
Hours is spread open before her. Anne is 
dressed in a golden brown flowing robe with red 




Anne and her Three Patron Saints: 
Saint Ursula, Saint Margaret, and Saint Annk. 



LE LIVRE D'HEURES 219 

undersleeves and a dark Breton cap edged with 
gold trimmings and faced with a plaited white 
niching. Behind her are standing her three 
patron saints, Saint Ursula holding an arrow 
and a banner with the ermine and the arms of 
Brittany upon it; Saint Margaret with a pro- 
cessional cross, and Saint Anne with her left 
hand placed upon the shoulder of her protegee, 
her right hand seeming to recommend her to the 
crucified Jesus on the opposite page. 

In a lighter mood we see Anne in the picture 
which illustrates the month of April. In the 
background is a chateau which is easily recog- 
nized as the chateau of Blois. At the bottom 
of the page is the Low Garden that the queen 
loved and that bore her name. In the gar- 
den before a trellis protecting a plot blossom- 
ing with flowers, stands a young girl; in the 
foreground, in everyday dress, is Anne of Brit- 
tany herself seated on the ground, hold- 
ing a crown in her left hand. A waiting-maid on 
her knees before her, offers her a basketful of 
flowers of different kinds. This simple grace- 
ful picture done by a contemporary of the 
Duchess Anne brings us into a close personal 
relation with her. 



220 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

For there she lives again for us in her attrac- 
tive red robe and Breton cap as vividly as when 
she and her maids-of-honor enjoyed the fra- 
grance of the Duchess Anne's Low Garden at 
the chateau of Blois. 



CHAPTER XVII 

LAST YEARS OF THE DUCHESS 

ANNE 

Feom affairs of love to affairs of war was but 
a short step, for after the betrothal of Claude 
to Francis, Anne saw Louis off for Italy again. 

After the disappointment over her daughter's 
nuptials, her visit to Brittany was only a con- 
necting link with another parting. This time 
she saw him go with less apprehension than 
usual, since he went to unite with Ferdinand of 
Spain in a plan to take Naples and divide it 
between them, a plan in which Pope Alexan- 
der VI joined, and which therefore must have 
seemed propitious to Anne. But a quarrel be- 
tween the two kings over the division of Naples 
brought France and Spain into conflict and 
Louis into serious relations with the church of 
Rome. In the midst of the dispute Alexander VI 
died, and Pius III did not live long enough 
to take it up; but the real trouble came with 

Julius II, who determined to destroy all for- 

221 



222 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

eign power in Italy, and later, in 1510, he ex- 
communicated the king. Upon the accession of 
Leo X, however, this ban was removed. 

The year 1507, while it did not bring any great 
disaster, was a troubled one. News of the re- 
volt of Genoa caused Louis to leave his queen 
on Easter morning to go to Italy again. Jean 
Marot, secretary and poet-laureate, accom- 
panied him with orders from the queen to write 
in verse a true account of the journey. In his 
poem "Le Voyage a Genes" he calls her "Anne 
duchess of Brittany, twice divinely crowned, in- 
comparable queen." Her distress at the de- 
parture of Louis is thus told : 

From fair Grenoble the king departs 

With face of holy light, 

His lovely queen too sad of heart 

To speak her sorrow's plight. 

Like Dido of her love bereft, 

Or sad Medea in her woe, 

Her noble heart with pain is cleft 

With right good reason so. 

Then Marot describes Anne and her ladies 
going barefoot to shrines to pray for the king 
at war, and how at Lyons the queen remained 
to mourn until her distress was turned to joy 



LAST YEARS OF ANNE 223 

over his great victory, news of which she sent 
by messengers broadcast. The poem closes 
with an account of the triumphs and return of 
Louis : 

He tarries not in any place 

More than a day. 

To see his dear one face to face, 

The king must haste away, 

She journeys too, his queen so fair, 

To meet her chosen lord, 

And at Vigilles with joyous prayer 

They join in one accord. 

Now vanish fears, 

For memories sweet 

With sighs and tears 

In pleasure meet. 

And cavaliers in bright array 

With ladies join the train, 

While naught the shouting can withstay, 

The King, the King is home again ! 

During the reign of Louis the queen went 
often to Lyons, sometimes to accompany him on 
his way to Italy, sometimes to greet him on his 
return. On one of these visits she shared with 
the king in his great triumph over the capture 
of Ludovico "II Moro," who had usurped the 
regency of Milan and whose treachery to the 
French had caused Louis to write to his general 



224 



ANNE OF BRITTANY 



La Tremoille, "I shall never be at ease until 
Ludovico has been brought over the moun- 
tains." 

Lyons was indeed a place of meeting and 
parting, and many a sad and beautiful scene 
took place there between the devoted pair. One 
of these is recorded in this year, 1507, when 
Anne tried to persuade Louis not to go again 
to Italy. She told him of her fears for his wel- 
fare, and added, as a crowning touch, the plea 
that little Claude needed him, and pictured the 
happiness they would have together, hoping in 
this way to entice him home, but he could not 
be persuaded, for he felt that an imperious duty 
compelled him to take up the conflict again. 
But while he could not accede to her request, he 
displayed for her the greatest tenderness and 
made most careful provision for her return, 
choosing out of his Swiss Guard twenty-four of 
the strongest men, to serve in relays, eight at 
a time, and to carry her in a litter, to spare her 
as much as possible the fatigue of the journey. 
He himself accompanied her some distance on 
the way, and promised her that he would join 
her as soon as possible at Blois. In April Anne 
was anxious again about their daughter, who 



LAST YEARS OF ANNE 225 

was taken with a fever that was pronounced in- 
curable. Claude was then the only child, a little 
more than seven. In spite of the gloomy prog- 
nostication of the doctors, she regained her 
health, and this so confirmed the queen in her 
lack of faith in them that she refused to see 
physicians herself and did not wish them to 
come near her child. 

The next year, 1508, opened with a great dis- 
appointment, the birth of a son without life, but 
after this, and throughout the following year, 
Anne's days passed with more serenity. 

During the summer she was busy about the 
monument being erected to her father and 
mother at Nantes, a grateful task. In August 
the duchess had a remarkable escape from 
drowning. While she was crossing a wooden 
bridge over the Loire, the boards gave way 
under the feet of her horses, who disappeared in 
the water. By what seemed a miracle her litter 
remained suspended on the edge of the opening, 
and she was thus saved from what might have 
been a fatal plunge. 

In the fall the queen journeyed to Eouen with 
the king, and December, 1508, saw his position 
strengthened by the formation of the League of 



226 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

Cambray, in which Louis, Maximilian, the Pope, 
and Ferdinand united to divide the republic of 
Venice. This meant another invasion of Italy, 
and in February (1509) the king set out from 
Blois attended by the queen and princes of the 
court, but not in battle array, for Anne felt 
so deeply these partings that, to spare her 
anxiety as long as possible, the king concealed 
from her, at first, the fact that he was going to 
Italy, and traveled by easy stages, hunting along 
the way. At Grenoble, when he could delay no 
longer, he left her, and, with her, Francis, who 
was even then longing to go to the land of great 
adventure. 

In spite of the favorable outlook, Anne was 
not able to face the king's departure with any- 
thing but great anxiety. She went at once to 
Lyons, where heralds could reach her more 
quickly, and spent much of her time in prayer. 
Dressed in mourning, she and her maids-of- 
honor again walked barefoot from one church 
to another to implore God's help. Soon the 
news of a great victory made the whole land 
rejoice and Anne's heart swell with pride, espe- 
cially when two Venetian standards were sent 
home by Louis as trophies of war. She did not 



LAST YEARS OF ANNE 227 

see him again until July, when he left Milan for 
France. On his way back he had a fever, and 
for eight days Anne prayed continually for his 
recovery. 

The queen met him near Grenoble, but he 
would not tarry there or anywhere until he had 
hastened to St. Denis, and, in the presence of 
the sacred relics on the altar, had made an act 
of thanksgiving for his safe return. 

To turn aside a moment from war to Anne's 
social life, we find an interesting event in the 
autumn of this year, — the marriage of Mar- 
guerite, the daughter of Louise of Savoy, and 
the duke d'Alengon, an illustration of the court 
functions which the king and queen honored. 

Marguerite was four years old when her 
father died, while her brother Francis was only 
two. Through the relationship of their father 
with the king, they naturally became wards of 
Louis XII, who was very fond of his niece and 
nephew. The boy was handsome, strong, and 
skilful in horsemanship and warlike sports, 
while the girl was so beautiful and accom- 
plished, that she was called the "Lily of Va- 
lois" and the tenth muse. 1 At the wedding it 

iSHie is th« author of the "Heptameron." 






228 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

was the king who conducted the bride to the 
chapel and to the banquet which followed. A 
description of the conduct of the feast brings 
us into intimate touch with the table etiquette 
of Anne's court. The queen, the bride, one or 
two noble dames, and the ambassadors sat at 
one table, the queen in the center, while the 
bridegroom, the princes of the blood, and the 
rest of the ladies sat at another. Only Anne, 
the queen, Marguerite, the bride, and the old 
duchess de Bourbon had plates of their own. 
The rest were served on gold plate but ate in 
common. The queen gave the heralds a large 
silver-gilt vase, and they went about crying, 
"Largesse! largesse! 9 ' — "a gift, a gift!" 
After the dinner there were dances and a 
tournament. The bridegroom and eight other 
princes entered the lists with a great company, 
some in cloth of gold, others in yellow silk. 

EENEE 

Lin spite of her many disappointments over 
her children, Anne continued to pray for a dau- 
phin, and made it the object of many pilgrim- 
ages, on some of which the king accompanied 
her. Although these petitions were not 



LAST YEARS OF ANNE 229 

granted, she named her second daughter, born 
at Blois, October 25, 1510, Eenee, for St. Bene 
of Anjou, who was believed to hear the prayer 
of mothers who desired sons, a touching proof 
that although a male heir was greatly longed 
for, there was no lack of gratitude on the part 
of the king and queen for the girls that came 
instead. The loving solicitude of Louis for 
Anne was especially shown by the great effort 
he made to reach her at the time of this illness. 
He left Lyons by daylight and traveled so fast 
that some of his attendants could not keep up 
with him. The greetings of the loving pair 
were most affectionate and joyous, and Louis 
shared in her suffering by remaining at her bed- 
side. 

After this the queen was never well. It was 
the beginning of the end, and it has been said 
that the reason was lack of medical treatment 
at this time, although she had the best that 
could be obtained. 

The Princess Eenee was plain and not well 
formed, but learned, especially in astrology and 
metaphysics, a fine conversationalist, one of the 
leaders of the Eeformation, and a great friend 
of Calvin, who was often her guest at her home 



230 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

in Geneva. It seems singular that so devout 
a Roman Catholic as Anne should have had a 
daughter a stanch Protestant, until we remem- 
ber that Renee was only four years old when 
her mother died. Even at this early age her 
mother had planned to marry her to the prince 
of Castille, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, 
and had sent to her niece, Germaine de Foix, 
then queen of Aragon, an ambassador, giving 
full power to treat not only for the marriage of 
Renee but also for an amicable understanding 
between the king of France and the king of 
Spain. This wish was not carried out, for 
Renee was married in 1528 to Ercole d'Este 
and became duchess of Ferrara. She had five 
children and lived to be sixty-four years 
old. Her virtues and endowments have been 
eulogized in the poems of Clement Marot. 

How much it is to be regretted that Anne did 
not have sons as well as daughters, since France 
might then have been saved the rule of the 
voluptuous kings that followed fj 

Perhaps the darkest year in all Anne's life 
was that of 1512. Of its sad beginning there 
is a record in the journal of Louise of Savoy: 
"Anne, queen of France, at Blois on the day 




Anne in Later Years. 



LAST YEARS OF ANNE 281 

of St. Agnes, January 21, 1512, had a son, but 
he could not retard the exaltation of my Caesar, 
for he was without life." This bitter disap- 
pointment was but a prelude to overwhelming 
disaster and trial. Among Anne's personal 
losses was that of the Breton ship Cordeliere. 
In Italy the king's army, now under the com- 
mand of his nephew, Gaston de Foix, a noble 
and brave knight, met with nothing but re- 
verses. Alone against the Holy League, 1 Louis 
found an enemy at every turn, an enemy that 
in the next year actually invaded France. 
Anne was bitterly grieved that her husband 
was at war with the Pope, and put forth every 
effort to make peace between them. One time 
Louis wittily replied to her pleading, "The 
holy father aims at royal honors ; St. Peter did 
not have time to look after the affairs of Nero, 
which in truth did not belong to him." And 
again, when his patience was sorely tried, he 
asked her, ' l Have not your confessors told you 
that women have no voice in the affairs of the 
church?" How she must have suffered when 

1 1511-1512. The Holy League against Louis was made 
up of the Venetians, Ferdinand of Spain, Henry VIII of 
England, Maximilian of Austria, and the Swiss, all led by 
Pope Julius II. 



232 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

Louis was actually excommunicated by the 
Pope can scarcely be imagined. That his sub- 
jects and some of the cardinals supported the 
king, and that a national council declared 
" France free from obedience to Julius II" was 
no consolation to her. That she herself was 
not included in the ban, nor her duchy, be- 
cause she had allowed the people to take no 
part in the controversy, was but little comfort. 
According to her belief Louis was guilty of 
heresy, and she feared for the salvation of his 
soul. In her zeal for religion nothing could 
have caused her more distress, but she did not 
allow it to estrange her from her husband nor 
to interfere with her duties as queen. When 
tears and entreaties failed, she redoubled her 
devotions, going from church to church with 
prayers for the end of the war. Finally Anne 
succeeded in persuading Louis to let her act as 
an intermediary, a mission in which she would 
doubtless have been successful had not Julius II 
died before it could be carried out. In his 
last moments he showed his regret for his war- 
like ardor and political aspirations by saying, 
"Would to God that I had not been pope, or 
that I had employed the arms I turned against 



LAST YEARS OF ANNE 233 

Christendom against the infidel." At the dy- 
ing request of the queen, Louis sought recon- 
ciliation with the papal court, and obtained it 
from Leo X, who succeeded Julius. This was 
considered by the French clergy the most mer- 
itorious act of his life. It is comforting to 
know that before Anne passed away, the king 
and the Pope had become reconciled, and that 
the dawn of peace, so near at hand, brightened 
her end. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

DEATH AND FUNERAL OF THE 
QUEEN 

For some time before her death those near- 
est the queen had been anxious about her health, 
as the strain and stress of her life had grad- 
ually undermined her splendid physical pow- 
ers. In March, 1511, she was very ill and her 
end seemed near. The doctors despaired of 
saving her, but after receiving extreme unc- 
tion she revived, and in April her convalescence 
was announced. The grief and disappoint- 
ment, over the birth of a son without life in 
January, 1512, was followed by consequences 
most grave. Although her strong constitution 
made a good resistance, her suffering was be- 
yond the power of doctors to relieve. February 
4, 1514, Anne had a violent attack of her malady 
called gravelle, and a week later, in great pain, 
she breathed her last. Her attendants, who 
seemed to share her lack of faith in doctors, de- 
clared that she died in full health, and that the 

234 



DEATH AND FUNERAL 235 

doctors * i ought to be driven away ' ' for their in- 
ability to save her. 

In his ' i Memorial and Notice of the Death of 
My Very Revered and Sovereign Lady, Ma- 
dame Anne, Twice Queen of France, Duchess of 
Brittany, Sole Heiress of this Noble Duchy, 
Countess of Montfort, of Eichemont, of 
Etampes, and of Vertuz," Bretagne, king-at- 
arms, quaintly writes: "In the sorrowful 
month of tears and lamentations, 1514, 1 the 
noble queen and duchess, our sovereign lady 
and mistress, gave up her soul to God. She 
died in her own chamber in her own bed in the 
chateau of Blois, with a great number of priests 
watching day and night and saying vigils and 
vespers." 

On the day of her death, her body was 
carried to the room of state, a room decorated 
with black velvet on which was the device and 
coat-of-arms of the queen, with silk tapestries 
worked in gold thread representing the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem, and an altar bearing the de- 
vice of the twisted cords. Over the bier was 

i Sometimes the death of Anne is given as January 9, 1513. 
This was under the old calendar, when the year commenced 
with Easter, but the change to the new calendar, which made 
the year begin with January, brings her death in the year 
1514. This change in the calendar will account for other 
apparent discrepancies. 



236 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

a canopy of cloth of gold with a border of er- 
mine. Her robe of purple velvet was trimmed 
with ermine and had sleeves ornamented with 
pearls. Upon her head was the crown and a 
headdress adorned with precious stones. Her 
scepter and rod of justice were placed, the 
one on the right, and the other on the left. At 
her feet were a gold cross and two silver basins 
of holy water. So lay the dead queen, her face 
uncovered, from Saturday to Monday evening. 
Thus lying in state, her body was visited by 
princes and princesses of her family, by Ma- 
dame de Mailly, her first maid-of -honor, and by 
the officers of the house, who were admitted to 
see their mistress for the last time. They were 
dressed in black, "and as they looked at the 
face not yet changed they mourned with tears 
and sighs and piteous lamentations." 

Eight days later the body was placed in a 
wooden casket, in which sad office several of the 
principal persons of her household partici- 
pated. When the veil was placed over the face 
of the queen, they cried, "0 noble lady, sov- 
ereign and renowned princess, must we lose 
forever the sight of your noble face?" Many 
touched her; some her face, others her shroud. 



DEATH AND FUNERAL 237 

Long lasted their tears, until each one de- 
parted, saying, "Behold this is our queen and 
mistress; pray God for her." 

On the afternoon of the fifteenth day the 
funeral procession began. After the body of 
the queen came the royal mourners, Francis I, 
Madame de Bourbon, Madame d'Angouleme, 
and the duke and duchess d'Alencon and their 
daughter. Then Madame de Mailly followed 
with the ladies of the court, two by two, clad 
alike in trailing garments, after them marched 
the Scottish prince, duke of Albany, ambassa- 
dors, lords of Brittany and of France, chamber- 
lains, gentlemen, archbishops and bishops, each 
according to his rank. The duke of Bour- 
bonnais with a number of Swiss soldiers kept 
the crowd back. In this way the body of the 
noble queen entered the church of St. Sauveur 
at Blois, and was placed in a lighted chapel of 
five stories surmounted by a bell-tower termi- 
nating in a cross. 

The next morning a solemn service of three 
masses was said; the first by the bishop of 
Paris, the second by the bishop of Limoges and 
the third by the archbishop of Bayeux. Then 
M. Parvy, confessor of the queen, pronounced 



238 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

the first part of the funeral oration with the 
text, " Deficit gaudium cordis nostri," " Joy has 
gone from our hearts.' ' In his sermon he used 
thirty-seven epithets in praise of the queen, 
one for each year of her life, and showed how 
her virtues had won Paradise for her. While 
the Libera was chanted, the mourners left the 
church in the midst of tears and wailing. Out- 
side the church and at the gate of the chateau 
verses called rondeaux were recited. 

RONDEAU A CHATEAU DE BLOIS 

Chateau de Bloys, plus n'a cause d'estre aise 
Puys que la royne en tristesse et doulleur, 
Le vendredi d'apres la Chandelleur, 
Mort la ravit Tan mil cinq cent treize. 

Immediately a trumpet made known through- 
out the village that each one should be ready 
to conduct the body as had been ordered, and 
that nothing should obstruct the way. The 
chateau and the houses displayed coats-of-arms 
brilliantly lighted, and people came from Tours 
and Amboise mourning the loss of the queen. 
The commissaries had charge of four hundred 
torches which illuminated the queen's coat-of- 
arms, and fifty torch-bearers of Blois never left 
the body until they reached St. Denis. 



DEATH AND FUNERAL 239 

Twenty days after the death of the queen, the 
casket was placed upon a four-wheeled chariot 
covered with black velvet upon which were satin 
crosses in white. The car was drawn by six 
horses, beautiful and strong, harnessed with 
black velvet, adorned with white satin crosses. 
Nothing like it had ever been seen before. 
"With horsemen and archers leading, and Swiss 
guards in black making a hedge on either side, 
the procession began its ten days' march to 
Paris. The population ran in crowds before or 
knelt by the roadside praying for the queen- 
duchess, while her almoner, remembering that 
she never came among them without hands full 
of benefits, showered alms along the way. 
Services were celebrated in the eight villages 
where they stopped, with especial pomp at Or- 
leans and Etampes. Orleans considered Anne 
as her very own, because the mother of Duke 
Francis II was Marguerite of Orleans; and 
Etampes was proud of the fact of having been a 
part of Anne's dowry. But these receptions 
were surpassed by that of Paris, which honored 
her as the wife of two kings of France and as 
the founder of the Cordelieres. 

After tarrying a night at the abbey of Notre 



240 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

Dame des Champs, at the gates of Paris, the 
cortege proceeded to Notre Dame de Paris 
through streets lined with black, violet, and 
bine. To those accompanying the fnneral-car 
were added officers of the city, archers, mendi- 
cants, Augustinians, Carmelites, twenty-four 
criers, the provost of Paris, the chapter of 
Notre Dame, the clergy, and the rector of the 
university. The archers of the king sur- 
rounded the casket and the lords of Parliament 
followed it as it was borne by the officers of the 
house, weeping and uttering deep groans. The 
princes and princesses of the blood had come 
from Blois mounted on little black mules har- 
nessed in velvet, and the maids-of -honor were 
on hackneys, two by two, each one led by a 
valet on foot. 

The entrance and interior of the cathedral 
had been hung with black cloth on which were 
placed the arms of the queen. When all had 
taken their places, — the clergy near the altar, 
those of the court of justice near the door, the 
ones from the university on the right and 
the Parisians on the left, — M. Parvy pro- 
nounced the second part of the funeral oration 
from the text "Conversus est in luctum chorus 



DEATH AND FUNERAL 241 

noster," "Our song is turned into joy." He 
dried their tears by a recital of the great quali- 
ties of the noble and virtuous queen whose 
memory needed no exaltation. 

In the afternoon twenty-four criers went 
about Paris calling, "Honorable and devoted 
people, pray God for the soul of the very high, 
very powerful, very excellent, magnanimous and 
beautiful Princess Anne, by the grace of God, 
in her life, queen of France, duchess of Brit- 
tany, who passed away at the chateau of Blois 
the ninth day of January, and is now at the 
church of Notre Dame. Say paternosters that 
God have mercy on her." 

That same day the body was placed in the 
abbey of St. Denis, in a chapel lighted and richly 
decorated. The next day a solemn service was 
held and M. Parvy pronounced the third part 
of the funeral oration, including the genealogy 
of the queen. He began with these words of 
the Scripture: "Cecidit corona capitis nos- 
tri," — "The crown has fallen from the head of 
our ruler." Then he spoke of the story that 
traces the queen's ancestry back to Inoge, wife 
of Brutus, and gave an account of the origin of 
the ermine as an emblem. During a hunt, an 



242 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

ermine cruelly pursued by the dogs of Brutus 
ran to the lap of Inoge, who saved it, cared for 
it, and adopted it for her insignia. He showed 
how the noble lineage of Anne was comparable 
to that of any princess in the world, and de- 
clared that she had never failed to follow the 
examples of the saints. 

Then the cardinal of Le Mans rose to give 
absolution. For this they put upon his shoul- 
ders a mantle of cloth of gold embroidered with 
pearls and the coat of arms of the queen. The 
hood was in the shape of a great rose, with a 
ruby in the middle as large as a nut. On the 
border of this cape Anne herself and her maids 
had worked, and Anne had bequeathed it to the 
treasury of St. Denis. After absolution the 
casket was lowered into the vault in front of 
the great altar, a vault of cut stone which Louis 
XII had prepared for himself and his wife. 1 

In a niche was the statue of Our Lady 
in marble, ornamented in gold and silver, with 
the shield of France on the right and that of 
Brittany on the left. 

When the cardinal, officiating, had thrown a 

i January 1, 1515, Louis died and his body was placed 
beside that of Anne. 



DEATH AND FUNERAL 243 

little earth on the tomb, Champagne, king-at- 
arms of France, advanced and cried in a loud 
voice, "King-at-arms of the Bretons, do your 
duty." Then Bretagne, clad in his coat of 
mail, cried, "The queen and very Christian 
duchess, our sovereign lady and mistress, is 
dead." After these piteous words Bretagne 
called in a loud voice, "Monsieur, cavalier of 
honor of the queen and duchess, bring the rod 
of justice." Thereupon the said cavalier 
kissed the scepter and passed it to the king-at- 
arms, who placed it upon the tomb. The same 
ceremony was repeated with the grand master, 
who brought the scepter, and the grand equerry, 
who bore the royal crown. Then said 
Bretagne, "Lords and ladies of the house of 
the very Christian queen and duchess 'do your 
duty.' " Whereupon each one threw the in- 
signia of his office into the vault. Then the 
people were allowed to approach. With tears 
and sighs eauh knelt and made a short prayer. 
At noon of this day the sumptuous funeral- 
repast arranged by the first steward of the 
queen was held. Monsieur d'Avaugour, called 
"her natural brother," presided as grand mas- 
ter of Brittany. After the repast he arose and 



244 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

addressed the officers around him: "Gentle- 
men, the very Christian queen and duchess, our 
sovereign lady and mistress, has lived with you 
and loved you. You have loyally served her. 
It has pleased God to take her away from us; 
if I can serve you in any way, I shall do so with 
right good will. You can withdraw to the king 
our sire and to the ladies, and in order to know 
that there is no longer open house, I break the 
baton.' 9 

Then the king-at-arms, Bretagne, commenced 
to cry in a loud voice, saying, "The very Chris- 
tian queen and duchess, our sovereign lady and 
mistress, is dead. Let each one go his way." 

Among the many epitaphs written for her is 
the following: 

Here lies Anne, the royal mate 

Of two French kings both good and great. 

And great herself a hundred fold, 

Richer than any queen of old, 

She gave to France a broad domain 

Throughout all ages to remain. 

To preserve the memory of these ceremonies, 
Louis ordered Peter Choque, who was devoted 
to the queen, to make a faithful recital of the 
funeral, and further authorized that the manu* 



DEATH AND FUNERAL 245 

scripts should contain eleven illustrations of 
the principal scenes, to be done by John of 
Paris, who also took a cast of her face from 
which to make a portrait. 

Each of these copies had a special dedica- 
tion in it, and were given to the princes of the 
blood royal and relatives of the queen. Louis 
still further showed his grief by wearing black, 
as Anne had done in her days of mourning, and 
by requesting princes, ambassadors, courtiers, 
and even the servants to wear it for several 
weeks; he also prohibited games, dances, and 
plays in France. Strange as it seems, the 
mourning was abruptly ended by preparations 
for the marriage of Louis XII and Mary Tudor 
of England, sister of Henry VIII, and only nine 
months after Anne's death, for reasons of 
state, this singular union took place. 

The expense of Anne's funeral was so great 
that some of the provinces murmured, and at 
the council of the king, one day, its grandeur 
and that maintained in her life was spoken of 
with disrespect. But Guy Laval, to whom 
Anne had married the daughter of Frederick 
III, of Aragon, arose and said : "I do not know 
why you speak thus ; recall and consider that, 



246 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

since the establishment of our kingdom, yon 
have not had a queen that was so great a lady 
nor one who elevated you so much. Show me 
a foot of territory that your other queens have 
added. By her you have closed the path to 
your enemies who threatened even the heart of 
your kingdom. The memory of those things 
ought to be kept fresh among you." 

At the last, true to her own country and peo- 
ple, Anne willed that her heart be sent to Nantes 
among the Bretons whom she deeply loved. 
It was placed in a heart of gold surmounted by 
a crown, entwined with twisted cords of gold, 
and enameled in white, inside and out. 

On one side was inscribed: 

In this little vase 

Of pure and shining gold 

A lady rests from out this world ; 

Her name was Anne, 

Twice queen of France, 

Duchess of the Bretons, 

Royal and Sovereign. 



o 

.M.V.XIII. 



On the other side : 



This heart was so exalted 
That from earth to heaven 




••.)e:fin-x-.;?v * ; - r;.:'W:;,'.u 
'"MPa^v.N s - 1 J vs - g:k amttji 

. a n n a ; j rv* t 1 > l ;i i . ; m dm *. i® * , j 




Gold Box which once contained Anne's Heart- 



DEATH AND FUNERAL 247 

Her liberal virtue 
Increased more and more. 
But God took away 
The better portion 
And this part terrestrial 
Has left us in great mourning. 

JANUARY 9. 

On the circle of the crown we read, " Heart 
with virtue adorned, with honor crowned.' 9 

In March this heart, as she had requested, 
was taken to Nantes by several Breton lords 
and deposited with great ceremony in the church 
of Chartreux de Nantes, upon the tomb of Ar- 
thur III, duke of Brittany. The following Sun- 
day it was borne to the Carmelite convent, and, 
after a solemn service, placed in the tomb 
erected by Anne herself to her father and 
mother. 

In 1727, when this tomb was opened by or- 
der of Louis XV, there were found the caskets 
of the duke and his two wives and the box con- 
taining the heart of the duchess. During the 
French Bevolution, when the church of the 
Carmelites was destroyed, the mausoleum was 
opened a second time and mutilated, but the 
pieces were saved, as by a miracle, and hidden 



248 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

away for more than twenty years. Finally, by 
order of the mayor of Nantes, the masterpiece 
of Michel Colomb was set up in the cathedral, 
where it has been ever since. But the heart of 
Anne was not put back. The leaden box had 
been broken and the heart of gold was taken 
to the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. Upon 
the demand of the municipal council of Nantes, 
however, and in memory of Anne '& own love of 
country, the precious relic was returned to them 
in 1817 and is now in the archaeological museum 
at Nantes. There any one interested can see it 
and decipher the inscriptions. 

THE TOMB OF ANNE 

Over rough pavements, a jolting ride of 
about an hour out of Paris brought us to the 
old abbey church of St. Denis, the burial-place 
of the kings and queens of France from Dago- 
bert (638) to Louis XVIII (1824). In the 
darkness of a severe thunderstorm which 
seemed typical of Anne's own turbulent life, 
we followed the verger through the gloomy edi- 
fice, lingering awhile before the tomb of Louis 
and Anne, one of the most remarkable in the 
world, even among the monuments of kings. 



DEATH AND FUNERAL 249 

By order of Francis I, the sculptor Jean Just, 
of the celebrated school of Tours, executed this 
great work, "worthy in every point of his royal 
majesty.' ' 

In form it is a marble chapel, with twelve 
arcades and a sarcophagus. The idea of the 
artist, which is to contrast regal power in life 
and its end in death, is carried out by portrait- 
statues of the king and queen. On top of the 
edifice they are kneeling in robes of ermine, 
with hands clasped in prayer, but below, on a 
sarcophagus, they are in their winding-sheets, 
shorn of all splendor and majesty. The dec- 
oration of the tomb is most elaborate and 
includes scenes from the life of Louis and 
figures of the twelve apostles. Between the 
arcades are vases, fruits, birds, winged women, 
heads of angels, musical instruments, weapons 
of war, and funeral emblems. The monogram 
of Louis and Anne is not forgotten but is 
placed on a shield with a crown of fleurs-de-lis. 
On the pillars are the lilies of France and the 
ermine of Brittany, angels with trumpets and 
figures with torches. Looking at this tomb, we 
are brought to the close of Anne's life and to 
one of the greatest pageants ever witnessed, 



250 



ANNE OF BRITTANY 



since nothing could surpass in magnificence the 
last ceremonies celebrated in honor of Anne of 
Brittany. 

So it has come about that in death, as in life, 
the body of the Duchess Anne is in France, 
while her heart is in Brittany among the peo- 
ple she always loved. 



FINIS 

Our quest of the Duchess Anne ended, what 
can we say of her? First of all, she was a de- 
voted wife and mother. Could there be higher 
praise? Surely the words of Solomon, "She 
looketh well to her household," apply to her. 
She was a benefactress to churches, hospitals, 
and religious orders ; a Dorcas to the poor, dis- 
tributing alms in abundance; a devout wor- 
shiper in her own religion; a leader among 
women ; a model of chastity and refinement ; a 
patron of arts and letters ; a patriot whose love 
of country has never been surpassed; a wise 
and able ruler over a powerful duchy; a queen 
"twice crowned"; the originator of the first 
court for women in Europe ; the strengthener of 
the French navy ; the founder of a religious or- 
der; the worthy mate of two good kings of 
France. But when everything that is possible 
of her life has been revealed, this queen is best 
known by her own people, in whose hearts she 
is enshrined, and by those who learn of her 

251 



252 ANNE OF BRITTANY 

through travel and history, not as Anne, "a 
twice-crowned queen of France," but as "Anne 
of Brittany, the Duchess Anne." 



Finis 



